Why are the peoples plotting in vain?

The rebellion and restlessness of the nations (Psalm 2:1) crash like ocean waves (Psalm 65:7) on the shores of this planet. But YHVH rules the waves: “Do you not fear Me? declares YHVH. Do you not tremble in My presence? For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea – an eternal limit, and it will not cross over it. Though the waves toss, they cannot prevail. Though they roar, they will not cross over it” (Jeremiah 5:22).

The nations are gathering with evil intent, planning to humiliate and violate the Daughter of Zion. But the God of Jacob proclaims that the Day of Vengeance is fast approaching: “For the Day of YHVH is near for all the nations. Just as you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will return on your own head!” (Obadiah 1:15).

We are living between the ‘here’ and the ‘not yet’ – between today’s careening events and the coming Day of Messiah’s wrath. With that sober destiny in mind, Yeshua challenges us to consider and to discern. “The Pharisees and Sadducees came up and, putting Yeshua to the test, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He replied to them, ‘When it is evening, you say, “It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.” And in the morning, “There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.” You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but are you unable to discern the signs of the times?’” (Matthew 16:1-3)

One of the strongest indicators of God’s coming day of vengeance for Zion (Isaiah 34:8) is the menacing rise of malice-filled nations who hate the Jewish people and impede their restoration to the Promised Land: “And now many nations have been assembled against you who say, ‘Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gloat over Zion!’” (Micah 4:11). Before our very eyes this anti-Semitic hatred is spreading like wildfire across the face of the globe. No country is immune to its toxic influence.

In Ezekiel 38:4 YHVH inserts hooks into the jaws of the nations and draws them down to Israel for a battle royal. Those kings of the earth have designs on the Promised Land – to divide and conquer. But instead, they will receive divine judgment on the mountains of Israel.

Today’s superpowers focus obsessively on the land promised by YHVH to His Jewish people – and that includes Gaza, Judea and Samaria, the Golan and Jerusalem. Their arrogant boastings fill the halls of the UN, falsely declaring that the land of Israel does not belong to the Jewish people but to the murderous descendants of jihadi invaders. God’s hooks are in their jaws, and this is the divine bait that God has placed in His prophetic mousetrap.

Look, you blind, so that you may see! (Isaiah 42:18)

Many presidents, diplomats and spies consider themselves authorities on the Middle East, but the truth is 180 degrees in the opposite direction. A peculiar blindness affects most nations regarding the Middle East. Many Israelis are also tone-deaf regarding the clear and present dangers in our Arabic-speaking neighborhood. A short list of these stumbling blocks may help us in praying for the peoples involved.

Most Westerners are unaware of the cultures, sensibilities and sensitivities of the Islamic and Arab world. They do not understand Arab perspectives or how classical Islam sees the world in general, or the Western world in particular. Most of them interpret Middle Eastern events through secular sunglasses. This is true not only for the common man, but also for Christian and Jewish theologians, for Western intelligence agencies, government officials and diplomats. For those who would want to broaden their understanding, a good place to begin is David Pryce-Jones’ penetrating book ‘The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs’ (1989, Harper & Row).

Another area of severe Western blindness involves foundational ignorance of Biblical realities. Yet it is these spiritual matters which hold the keys to unlocking the doors of perception regarding Middle Eastern dynamics, history, paradigms and its prophetic future.

A third area of blindness is the lack of awareness of (or even refusal to accept) God’s irrevocable calling on and gifts to the Jewish people. Included here would be such pillars as the blessing and cursing dynamics of Genesis 12:3, and the sober spiritual dangers of jihad.

A fourth area of blindness involves flat-out anti-Semitism – the endemic anti-Jewish dynamics now rampant in the US State Department, the CIA, the NSA, etc. (as well as European varieties of the same).

Specific examples of Israeli blindness include the following:

Seeing the Oslo Accords, the Camp David Accords and the Abraham Accords as giant steps forward to Middle East peace – similar to how WWI was once seen in the West as ‘the war to end all wars.’

Israeli leaders in government, intelligence and the military still believe that jihadi terrorists will eventually ‘change their spots’ and accept the material benefits of peace with Israel.

These leaders believe that, even if the jihadi armies of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Palestinian Authority are all truly terrorists, Israel should choose one of the ‘lesser evils’ among them and work together with that party.

Israeli leaders understand that there is no love lost between Palestinians and Jews. Nevertheless they ardently believe that Israelis needs a peace agreement – even a shaky one, and even if the price is dangerous to Israel’s survival.

These operating principles shape much of what is transpiring in Middle Eastern current events – diplomatically, militarily and in the intelligence world.

Anti-Semitism – the foundation of Western intelligence organizations

Those Americans who love Israel – whether Evangelical Christians, Jews of Orthodox, Conservative, Reform or liberal stripe, or simply secular US citizens – have a quiet respect for plucky Israel, her courage and heroism in battle, her tenacity in the face of many deadly challenges, her sufferings in the Holocaust.

But other Americans are opposed to Zion. Secular isolationists and anti-Semitic professors, self-hating Jews and jihadi Islamists, oil barons and most State Department honchos, CIA movers and shakers – there are significant and influential layers of American society solidly positioned against the land and people of Israel. At the upper echelons of US politics, business and intelligence, powerful people are ensconced – pressuring and persuading, weakening and destroying the apple of God’s eye. Anti-Semitism has been hard-wired into the roots of the US intelligence community and the US State Department. Its poison influences current positions trumpeted from the Rose Garden, the Congress and the main stream media. What is knowable about these roots and this history?

The foundations of U.S. intelligence go back to the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), formed June 13, 1942 and dissolved September 20, 1945. OSS evolved into the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) on September 18, 1947, and eventually was overshadowed by its vastly larger big brother the National Security Agency (NSA), established on November 4, 1952. The OSS. The CIA and the NSA have done masterful work in protecting the security and survival of the USA, countering Communist attempts to undermine America and the West, etc. Yet its adversarial role vis-à-vis the Jewish state must be evaluated based on biblical principles.

The Agency (aka CIA) was at its heart an ‘old boys’ network’ of Ivy League university graduates. They were the ones who recruited and vetted new officers for these fledgling agencies. Liberal Protestant religious affiliations (Presbyterians, Episcopalians, etc.) were just about a requirement for a job. Most of these men were thoroughly pickled in old-school anti-Semitic prejudices and attitudes. ‘America's Great Game: The CIA's Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East’ by Hugh Wilford (2017) notes that the CIA’s Middle East division was headed by ‘Arabists’ – men like Kermit ‘Kim’ Roosevelt (grandson of POTUS Theodore Roosevelt); Kim’s cousin, Archie Roosevelt (a Middle East scholar and Chief of Beirut Station); and Miles Copeland (a covert American intelligence operator since WWII). The agency’s Arabists were the intellectual, and often biological, descendants of American missionaries in Arab lands. They believed that a century of American missionary activity had paved the way for a Pax Americana in the region – if only the recalcitrant Israelis could be sidelined. These officials were fiercely anti-Zionist, convinced that American support for Israel was a strategic blunder of the first order. Wilford states that these founders believed “in the overriding importance of American-Arab, and Christian-Muslim, relations.”

The CIA would become known for engineering the destruction of nationalist governments (Kim Roosevelt engineered the coup that toppled Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953); shoring up pro-western autocracies in the oil-rich Gulf States; and (at a much lower level of priority) tending to the growing American-Israeli alliance. By November 1947, the Agency’s operational Middle East policy was based on three foundational realpolitik concerns:

The Arab world has an overwhelming hostility to a Jewish state, and to Western support for the Jews. US diplomacy must placate this hostility.

Any threats to the Arab world’s oil production must be neutralized.

Soviet penetration of the Middle East must be blocked, and efforts must be made to bring Arab nations onboard the American ‘ship of influence.’

Reflecting on these organizational anti-Semitic foundations, one former CIA operative explained: “You shouldn't be surprised [at the CIA’s covert war with the Jewish state]. It's [simply a matter of] pure hypocrisy. In public, Israel is our ally. What the public doesn't know is that all Western nations have covert policies to side with the Arabs. It keeps the intelligence community busy” (see John Loftus and Mark Aarons, The Secret War Against the Jews (How Western Espionage Betrayed The Jewish People); p. 510).

CIA anti-Semitic fronts created to weaken support for Israel

In 1949 Kim Roosevelt formed the anti-Israel group ‘Holy Land Christian Committee,’ ostensibly to assist Christians in Israel. Anti-Zionist Jews were invited on to the Board, as well as Allen Dulles, a former State Department and OSS official and future director of the CIA. This organization was directed by CIA employee William A. Eddy, a former US minister plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and consultant to Aramco. Bronson Clark of the (Quaker) ‘American Friends Service Committee,’ then doing refugee relief work in Gaza, notes: “This body, composed entirely of pro-Arab, anti-Zionist elements, was not to be an operating agency but was to serve as a publicity front for the operating agencies . . . This meeting represents another move in a series of moves which, like an iceberg, show only one-quarter on the surface what goes on, while three-quarters of the maneuverings are hidden.”

In 1951, the CIA secretly funded the creation of an ostensibly private outfit of US citizens dedicated to citizen diplomacy, called the ‘American Friends of the Middle East’ (AFME). This group propagated rabidly pro-Arab and anti-Zionist views – perspectives that shaped the CIA in its early years. Roosevelt used his role at the CIA to ensure the organization’s funding the group through the CIA and Aramco. This CIA front sought to weaken support for the Jewish state in the U.S. Though anti-Israelis often aim fire at ‘the Israel Lobby,’ they grow surprisingly mum about ‘the anti-Israel Lobby’ fronts established by the CIA.

A recent Hollywood movie crystallizes the realities of these roots in two brief lines. In the movie ‘The Good Shepherd,’ Joe Pesci plays a Mafia boss named Joseph Palmi – a fictionalized version of either Sam Giancana (from the Chicago Outfit) or Santo Trafficante Jr., a Mafia boss in Florida. Matt Damon plays Edward Wilson (who is going under the pseudonym ‘Mister Carlson’ for this meeting). Wilson’s character is based on the CIA’s Chief of Counterintelligence, James Jesus Angleton). Palmi and ‘Carlson’ have been discussing Mafia and CIA involvement in the upcoming Cuban Bay of Pigs invasion, and then move on to discuss philosophical perspectives on how the CIA looks at ethnic minorities in America.

Joseph Palmi : “Let me ask you something. We Italians, we got our families, and we got the church. The Irish – they have the homeland. The Jews – their tradition. Even the n—g-rs, they got their music. What about you people, Mister Carlson? What do you have?”

Edward Wilson: “The United States of America. The rest of you are just visiting.

Purge out the leaven from among you (1 Corinthians 5:7)

The Apostle Paul uses the Feast of Passover to draw a pastoral principle for the Jewish and Gentile believers in Greek Corinth. He exhorts them to purge out or remove sinful behaviors in their lives, which he likens to leaven. The Pesach matzah is a leaven-free bread, and quickly rising leaven was sometimes understood by Jews in Paul’s day to be symbolic of sin.

In the same way as Jewish houses search for and remove even the tiniest crumbs of yeasted bread just before Passover, the diplomatic and intelligence corps of the US (and many other countries too) need to do some serious confessing, repenting and renouncing regarding the foundational sins of anti-Jewish hatred which have wrapped their gnarled roots around the secret world of America’s leaders and strategists.

How should we then pray?

Pray for the God of Jacob to grant breakthrough revelation and repentance to America’s (and other countries’) leaders regarding the refuge of anti-Semitic lies that they have embraced

Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 133 Israeli hostages (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Some of these hostages that Hamas is holding include at least 35 corpses of Israeli citizens, being held in cold storage as bargaining chips

Pray for Hamas’ cruel terror dictatorship in Gaza to be decisively shattered and for all chains broken off the Palestinians living there, and for Iran’s role in jihadi deception, dissimulation and anti-Semitism to be exposed and opposed by world leaders

Pray that Israel’s leadership be granted justice, clarity, moral courage, discernment and divine strategies in utterly destroying the jihadi threat in all of its aspects, and for minimal loss of life for Israel’s defense forces and for those Gazans who are truly innocent

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to: FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212 – 1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

Enemy at the gates

The Jewish people were born for warfare, even as YHVH promised to Abraham: “Indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand, which is on the seashore. And your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies! And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” (Genesis 22:17-18). The prophetess Deborah agrees, describing her people’s history as one birthed in combat: “Then war was in the gates!” (Judges 5:8).

Israel’s arch-enemy – the seemingly invincible super-power Assyria – received a prophetic word about coming war – the gates of its capitol city Nineveh would be overrun by Babylonian hordes: “The gates of your land are opened wide to your enemies. Fire consumes your gate bars!” (Nahum 3:13).

The Bible sadly foresaw that the Jewish people would not be immune to enemy invasions: “The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary and the enemy would enter the gates of Jerusalem” (Lamentations 4:12). In addition, Ezekiel prophesied that Babylon would crash through the gates of Zion, and that many Jewish soldiers would die in its defense: “Many fall at all [Jerusalem’s] gates!” (Ezekiel 21:15).

The sons of Jacob have a history full of enemies assaulting the gates of Zion. Just recently, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated that “we are in a multi-front war. We are being attacked from seven different arenas: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, [ed., the West Bank], Iraq, Yemen, and Iran. We have already responded and acted in six of these areas, and I say here in the most clear way: anyone who acts against us is a potential target. There is no immunity for anyone.”

The entire nation of Israel is today on war footing. But the enemy is not only at the gates. There are enemies inside the gates as well. What happens when the cartoon character Pogo’s words come true: “We have met the enemy, and he is us!”?

The Persian snake’s teeth

The drums of war are beating today in Iran. One of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ top generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi (Deputy Chief of Operations and a virulent active enemy of Israel) was taken out in a pinpoint air attack on Monday April 1, 2024 along with six other top Iranian jihadi terror masterminds. These individuals “were all responsible, in different capacities, for relations with Iranian-affiliated groups, particularly Hamas and Hezbollah.” The April 1, 2024 attack is being attributed to Israel, though the Jewish state has remained silent.

A building next to the Iranian Consulate in Damascus was the target. In the past, Iran has openly targeted foreign consulates in Tehran, including the consular compounds of the USA (November 4, 1979), the UK (November 29, 2011) and Saudi Arabia (January 2, 2016). In this latest unattributed attack in Damascus, the Iranian consulate was actually not attacked, but rather an adjoining building was targeted which was hosting terrorists in the employ of the Iranian government.

Though Israel has not taken responsibility for the attack, Iran is nevertheless issuing harshly-worded threats to target Israel. This Persian response is known in the Middle East as brinksmanship – playing ‘chicken’ with loaded weapons. Zahedi was one of the main planners of jihadi attacks against Israel by Hamas (including October 7), by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, by Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iraq, by Syria and by Yemeni Houthis. He was particularly close to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, says Clive Jones, a specialist in Israel and the Middle East at Durham University in the UK. Zahedi was under US sanctions, accused of supplying Hezbollah with Iranian missiles.

Over the past few days, many Israelis have been descending in waves on supermarkets and ATMs, stocking up on provisions in case Iranian or Lebanese or Houthi or Iraqi or Syrian missiles and rockets begin to land on Israeli infrastructure in the next little while. This would be a good time to pray for protection for Israel, and for strategic and divine military and diplomatic wisdom for her leaders.

“For Iran, it’s a loss comparable to that of Qasem Soleimani, the former commander-in-chief of the Quds Force, killed by an American drone in 2020,” states Shahin Modarres, Iran specialist at the International Team for the Study of Security (ITSS) in Verona, Italy.

There is some measure of a déjà vu here. Modarres is recalling a similar but even more significant strike – the previous assassination of Zahedi’s boss, Qasem Soleimani on January 3, 2020, by a US MQ-9 Reaper drone strike near Baghdad International Airport at 00:47 am. Major-General Soleimani was the architect of all of Iran's foreign policies in the Middle East. He was described by US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as “Iran’s master terrorist.” On 25 August 2019, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said, “Israel is acting to strike the head of the Iranian snake and uproot its teeth . . . Iran is the head of the snake and Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, is the snake's teeth.”

Settling scores at the carpet bazaar

According to official Iranian sources, the January 2020 US strike on Qasem Soleimani took out a total of ten terrorists. These included four Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers (Brigadier General Hossein Pourjafari, Colonel Shahroud Mozafarinia, Major Hadi Taremi and Captain Vahid Zamanian) and five Iraqi members of the Iraqi jihadi Popular Mobilization Forces (including deputy chairmanAbu Mahdi al-Muhandis, chief of protocol and public relations Muhammed Reza al-Jaberi. Mohammad al-Shibani, Hassan Abdul Hadi and Heydar Ali). At that time, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened “severe revenge for the criminals who bloodied their foul hands with [Soleimani's] blood,” and Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that “the US act of international terrorism, targeting and assassinating General Soleimani . . . is extremely dangerous and a foolish escalation.”

In January 2020, US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft informed the UN Security Council that this American act was one of self-defense, while senior State Department officials compared this assassination to Operation Vengeance in World War II, when American pilots shot down the plane carrying Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.

Iran is known as a country which can wait patiently as it seeks revenge and victory. This applies to its nuclear weapons program as well as to its settling scores with America or Israel.

On Wednesday December 27, 2023, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesman Ramazan Sharif declared that Hamas’ October 7, 2023 jihadi rape, torture, murder and kidnapping of thousands of Israeli citizens was an Iranian-guided revenge attack for the 2020 assassination of IRGC Quds Force head Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike. According to the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency, Sharif said: “The Al-Aqsa Storm [Hamas’ Arabic name for the October 7 jihadi pogrom] was one of the retaliations of the Axis of Resistance [ed.: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas, Yemeni Houthis] against the Zionists for the martyrdom of Qasem Soleimani.”

Kidnapping the families of the kidnapped

A storm has been brewing in Israel. Two recent newsletters give helpful background: March 28, 2023 (‘In a wilderness of mirrors’) and July 4, 2023 (‘The wisdom of Ahithophel’). A concerted attempt at overthrowing the current Israeli government is in progress, led by former Israeli military and political figures. We regret to say that these efforts are being openly supported by the U.S. State Department (see recent newsletters of November 2, 2023 (‘You don’t have too many friends here, buddy’) and March 20, 2024 (‘Shaking a fist at the Daughter of Zion’).

The Kaplan street riots (named for the Tel Aviv intersection where their faithful demonstrators gather) became progressively more violent throughout the Summer of 2023. These demonstrations were strategically planned, organized and funded by some former Israeli Prime Ministers, former Generals, and families connected to both Israeli intelligence agencies and opposition parties. All this background is a matter of public record and open source (referenced in the above newsletters). The demonstration leaders first focused on supposed ‘popular opposition’ to judicial reform. But after October 7, they quickly morphed their emphases into two strident demands from the government:

Restore the Israelis kidnapped by Hamas at any price

Force the present Israeli government coalition to resign immediately, thus allowing left-wing parties to step into the political vacuum, setting up statecraft more in line with American demands. This would lead to a unilateral IDF withdrawal from Gaza, leaving Hamas intact to fight another day – another déjà vu recalling PM Ariel Sharon’s disastrous disengagement from Gaza in 2005, which led to the current 19 year long war with Hamas.

The Kaplan demonstrators and rioters have made their end game clear: “All problems can be immediately solved if we simply throw PM Bibi Netanyahu out of office, by fair means or foul.”

Over the past month the spokespersons for these violent demonstrations/riots have upped the ante, blaming the current government for Hamas’ terror pogroms. Over the past week they have physically attacked the Israeli security forces guarding the Prime Minister’s residence, and have also attempted a brutal attack on the PM himself – led by a violent torch-bearing mob (conjuring images of pogroms, the KKK and Nazi Berlin).

Many Israelis are horrified at the violent and anarchistic tactics of these anti-government spokesmen. They are appalled that the Kaplan protest leaders are claiming that its strategies represent the majority of Israelis and especially the families of the hostages. A significant amount of Israelis and hostage families are not blaming not the government for jihadi atrocities – they blame Hamas and its supporters. These grass-roots people have been organizing and making their own voices heard above the din of the anti-Bibi riots. They are declaring to the Kaplan demonstrators: “You will not burn down our country!”

Unfortunately there are powers in the American administration who are cultivating leaders of the Kaplan movement, offering advice and finances to them in their efforts to bring about a coup d’état in Israel. For those who are new to this aspect of super-power politics, here are three 20^th century examples of similar American-guided coups:

June 27, 1995 – CIA-guided coup d'état overthrowing Emir Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani and setting Qatari Crown Prince Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani on the throne

September 11, 1973 – CIA-guided coup d'état overthrowing Chilean President Salvador Allende and replacing him with a military junta led by General Augusto Pinochet

November 1-2, 1963 – CIA-approved South Vietnamese coup d'état overthrowing President Ngô Đình Diệm and replacing him with General Dương Văn Minh

August 19, 1953 (28 Mordad) – CIA-guided coup d'état overthrowing Iran’s Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and setting Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on the throne

Burning down the storehouses

Events from 2,000 years ago shine ancient light on some modern Jewish events. The Babylonian Talmud TB Gittin 56a, describes Jerusalem of 68-70 A.D. just before its destruction, when the Romans were besieging the city and various Jewish political-religious parties were fighting amongst each other:

Rome sent Vespasian Caesar against the Jews. He came and laid siege to Jerusalem for three years. There were at that time in Jerusalem these three wealthy people: Nakdimon [i.e., Nicodemus] ben Gurion, ben Kalba Savua, and ben Tzitzit HaKesat . . . These three wealthy men had between them enough commodities to sustain the besieged [populace] for twenty-one years. There were certain Zealots among the people of Jerusalem . . . In order to force the residents of the city to engage in battle, the Zealots arose and burned down these storehouses of wheat and barley, and there was a general famine.

Josephus Flavius, an eyewitness of these events, notes:

And this Yehohanan of Gush Halav [John of Giscala] . . . set on fire those houses that were full of grain, and of all other provisions. The same thing was done by Shimon bar Giora – as if they had on purpose done it to serve the Romans, by destroying what the city had laid up against the siege, and by thus cutting off the nerves of their own power. Accordingly it so came to pass . . . that almost all that grain was burnt, which would have been sufficient for a siege of many years.

As the crushing power of Rome bulldozed its way to the gates of Zion, the warriors of Jerusalem were in the throes of civil war. Judea was divided; all the Romans needed to do was conquer.

Modern Israelis make use of a phrase from that day – lisrof et ha’asamim [‘to burn down the warehouses’] – to describe how hatred and the desire for vengeance can bring great damage to any people. This ancient term is being used by many today to draw a sober parallel between modern social unrest in Israel and the events which led to the Destruction of the Second Temple on Tisha b’Av in 70 A.D. – while Hamas is waging jihad on the Jewish state, strengthened by its terrorist comrades in Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, Iraq, Iran and Yemen.

To add fuel to the fire, on Thursday April 4, 2024 the US State Department and POTUS Biden threatened an arms embargo on Israel unless the IDF immediately retreats from Gaza – something which would defeat the whole strategic aim of this war – for it would allow Hamas to both survive and thrive. And all the while, Qatar’s Muslim Brotherhood TV network Al Jazeera crows with delight, continually broadcasting video clips of Israeli Kaplan demonstrators blocking freeways or attacking Israeli police and security defending the Knesset and the Prime Minister’s residence.

How should we then pray?

Pray for the God of Jacob to grant breakthrough revelation and repentance to His Jewish people regarding Satan’s plans for division, civil war and destruction

Pray for the plots of coup d'état to be exposed and neutralized, whatever the sources

Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 134 Israeli hostages (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Some of these 134 that Hamas is also holding include at least 35 corpses of Israeli citizens, being held in cold storage as bargaining chips

Pray for Hamas’ cruel terror dictatorship in Gaza to be decisively shattered and for all chains broken off the Palestinians living there, and for Iran’s role in jihadi deception, dissimulation and anti-Semitism to be exposed and opposed by world leaders

Pray that Israel’s leadership be granted justice, clarity, moral courage, discernment and divine strategies in utterly destroying the jihadi threat in all of its aspects, and for minimal loss of life for Israel’s defense forces and for those Gazans who are truly innocent

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to: FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212 – 1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

Enduring the insults of the nations (Ezekiel 34:29)

God said it: a day is coming when Israel will no longer have to endure the insults of the nations. In Ezekiel 35:12, 36:6-7,15 YHVH defines what those insults are: false and unjust claims by the sons of Edom and the surrounding Arab countries concerning the Promised Land – specifically, their attempts to occupy Israel and to steal it away from God’s true heirs, the Jewish people.

Today these insults are politically institutionalized at the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the European Union. As far as the United States goes, its position has gone through a see-saw of policy changes, depending on who controls the House of Representatives. Sometimes American policies have stood with Israel; at other times the US State Department has allowed harmful legislation at the UN to be ratified without US objection.

But YHVH’s perspectives on Israel-related matters do not fluctuate, for they are based on His covenant faithfulness to the Jewish people: “For I, YHVH, do not change! Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed!” (Malachi 3:6). “For the gifts and the calling of God [given to Israel] are irrevocable!” (Romans 11:29).

We live in the days when the nations are obsessed with blocking the prophetic restoration of the Jewish people to their homeland – whether it be Gaza or Jerusalem, Hebron or Ramallah, Nablus or the Golan. The God of Israel is issuing a divine wake-up call, and those who have ears to hear are tracking. The entire planet is being weighed in the balances regarding its heart toward Israel. It is being measured by the standard of God’s word regarding its actions vis-à-vis the Jewish people, and has been found lacking God’s heart perspectives in its arrogant treatment of Jacob and his land.

Biblical history shows us that ancient superpowers like Babylon and Persia could quickly turn from blessing Israel to cursing the Jewish people. The Purim story in the Book of Esther is one such example. Could not such events happen again in our day? The only protection against this trap is a firm foundation based on a rock-solid biblical understanding of Israel’s calling and destiny, as well as a unswerving commitment to honor God by honoring His people. Genesis 12:3 tell us that the one who mocks or despises the Jewish people, the one who treats them as of little consequence, the one who says that God is finished with them – these are the exact shades of meaning in the Hebrew verb used here meqalelecha – these people and nations will be cursed by God.

Prophetic vision – seeing things through the apple of God’s eye

Corrie ten Boom, the brave Netherlands believer whose family sheltered Jews from the Nazis, describes an event in Occupied Haarlem during World War II. She and her father Casper were returning from a walk, and “found the Grote Markt cordoned off by a double ring of police and soldiers. A truck was parked in front of the fish mart; into the back were climbing (Jewish) men, women, and children, all wearing the yellow star.” Corrie cried out in horror. Then “she saw that her father was looking at the soldiers now forming into ranks to march away. ‘I pity the poor Germans, Corrie. They have touched the apple of God’s eye’” (The Hiding Place, page 64).

Casper ten Boom was echoing the words of Zechariah regarding God’s judgment over Babylon, “This is what YHVH of armies says, He sent Me for the purpose of glory against the Gentiles who plunder you all. For the one who lays his hand on you lays his hand on the apple of His eye. For I will wave My hand against them, and they will become plunder for their slaves. And you all will know that YHVH of armies has sent Me” (Zechariah 2:8-9).

The nation which raises its hand against the Jewish people – whether in the open or hidden from sight, whether through using terror or supporting terror or not confronting terror – YHVH of armies promises an assured judgment.

“Now YHVH saw, and it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice. And He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede. Then His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle. According to their deeds, so He will repay – wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies. To the coast lands He will make recompense…For He will come like a rushing stream which the wind of YHVH drives. A Redeemer will come to Zion” (Isaiah 59:15-20)

In the last volume of C.S. Lewis’ science-fiction Perelandra trilogy, evil men are described as breaking down God’s ordained walls of protection. As a result, divine judgment is about to descend on them. Satan’s rebellious strategies (from the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 to the present) are termed by Lewis as ‘that hideous strength’ (that is also the name of Lewis’ book). In chapter 13, the hero Ransom declares, “The Hideous Strength holds all this Earth in its fist . . . Their own strength has betrayed them. They have . . . pulled down Deep Heaven on their heads.”

The UN, UNESCO, UNRWA, advocates of Replacement Theology and BDS (anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement) and all those who work for and call for Israel’s weakening and destruction – certainly, these people’s actions should be opposed. At the same time, these people are to be pitied, for they are calling down the fiery judgment of Deep Heaven upon themselves.

Moses describes a similar dynamic in Exodus 15:7,11 where the judgment of Deep Heaven descends onto the heads of God’s enemies: “In the greatness of Your majesty You overthrow Your adversaries. You send out Your fury; it consumes them like stubble . . . Who is like You, YHVH, among the gods? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”

The insults of the nations – the Holocaust

Zechariah says that the God of Jacob sees the nations through the lens called ‘Israel,’ the apple of God’s eye. But from YHVH’s perspective, the nations for the most part just don’t get it; they don’t resonate with His heart, and they don’t understand that the Jewish people are a priority in the plan of God. He declares to Israel: “For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds, declares YHVH, because they have called you an outcast, saying: ‘It is Zion; no one cares for her’” (Jeremiah 30:17).

During WWII, when the survival of the Jewish nation was being threatened by Hitler and his Third Reich, the nations of the world for the most part turned their eyes and hearts away from rescuing or protecting the sons and daughters of Zion.

In Canada, immigration policies were boldly anti-Semitic, as detailed in ‘None is Too Many.’ This classic book (readable for free here) details Canadian cold-hearted complicity in the Holocaust as well as in anti-Jewish immigration policies between 1933 and 1948. Top officials spearheading these policies included Director of the Government of Canada’s Immigration Branch Frederick Blair, who had the full support of Canadian PM William Lyon Mackenzie King and High Commissioner to Britain Vincent Massey in these matters. Blair’s office allowed fewer than 5,000 Jews into Canada (1933-39), in comparison to over 200,000 allowed into the United States, and 20,000 into Mexico. “That record is arguably the worst of all possible refugee-receiving states,” wrote Abella and Troper, the authors of ‘None is Too Many.’ Blair’s anti-Semitic immigration policies “sealed the fate of thousands of European Jews who would have escaped death had Canada not turned them away.”

In the USA, Arthur D. Morse’s book While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy details how the US State Department (including Secretary of State Cordell Hull, Assistant Secretary Breckinridge Long) consistently delayed, obstructed or opposed efforts to save Jews from the Nazis in Europe, or to admit them as refugees into the United States. One example involved President Roosevelt’s delaying action of five months in pro-actively responding to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr., report originally titled ‘Acquiescence of this Government in the Murder of the Jews.’

In Britain, PM Neville Chamberlain’s government carried out the policies of its White Paper of 1939, forbidding shelter in Mandatory Palestine for Jewish refugees fleeing from Nazi-occupied Europe. This led to even greater Jewish death tolls in Hitler’s death camps. Former PM David Lloyd-George called this White Paper “an act of perfidy.”

It is less than 80 years since these events occurred, and the anti-Semitic roots wrapped around these governments and their leaders which catalyzed them, have for the most part not been decisively dealt with. Today’s diplomatic representatives from the above-listed countries continue to advocate measures quite similar in spirit to their predecessors, when it comes to matters concerning the Jewish people and their land.

The insults of the nations – Islamic moves to destroy Israel

The concerted effort of most Islamic and Arabic-speaking countries to destroy the Jewish state is well documented. The malignant influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and its metastasizing tentacles (like Hamas, al Qa’eda, ISIS, Islamic Jihad, Houthis, etc.) are defined by God in Ezekiel 35:12, 36:6-7,15 as insults against YHVH and against His Jewish people – Islamist and Arab false claims concerning the Promised Land – their attempts to occupy Israel and to steal it away from God’s true heirs, the Jewish people.

Western powers are on record as supporting Islamist terror groups with training, funding, diplomatic muscle and weaponry. Three books (of many) detail these schemes:

John Loftus and Mark Aarons, The Secret War Against the Jews (How Western Espionage Betrayed The Jewish People)

Moshe Arens, Broken Covenant: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis between the U.S. and Israel (a former Israel Defense Minister)

Bruce Brill, Deceit of an Ally (a memoir of Yom Kippur treachery)

Recent Israeli intelligence interrogations of Hamas Nukhba terrorists involved in the jihadi October 7 attacks from Gaza on Israeli citizens, have revealed that Hamas planned even greater destruction in Israel – plans which were thwarted by desperate last-minute IDF countermeasures. The plans involved jihadi attacks on Kiryat Gat, the Shikma Prison in Ashkelon, and the IAF airbase in Hatzerim; the nuclear research facility at Dimona and several points in Tel Aviv, where a mass slaughter of civilians was planned. “There is no doubt that if Hamas had carried out Phase Two, the trauma and disaster would have been doubled . . . [Hamas leader] Sinwar believed that if the news channels reported that he had attacked in Tel Aviv and Dimona, Hezbollah in the north and the other terrorist organizations in Judea and Samaria would also have attacked. It's a demonic plan that, had it succeeded, the reality would have been many times worse.”

The current swelling of murderous rage against Israel and the popular identification among many Middle Eastern Arabs and Muslims with Hamas was on full display in Amman Jordan this past week. On March 27, 10,000 protestors approached the Israeli Embassy, chanting: “O cowardly Arab governments! On behalf of the voiceless, we too stand with Gaza. We are besieged . . . Let the voice rise from Amman. We are part of the flood. Let every traitor and collaborator hear it. With Hamas for liberation!” On March 28, the Amman protestors carried Palestinian flags and chanted: "They said Hamas is terrorist. All of Jordan is Hamas!” Placards were carried declaring “Amman-Gaza – one destiny!” while posters depicted Hamas’ chief spokesman, Abu Obaida. On March 29, the demonstrators shouted out their support of Hamas’ Gazan second-in-command terror chief: “Muhammad Deif, O Chief of Staff . . . We want to shake the Zionist entity!” At the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the same chants were heard on March 28: “Raise a sword against a sword! We are the people of Muhammad Deif! Blessings for [Yahya] Sinwar [Hamas’ top jihadi commander]!”

These dynamics are alive and well in the Middle East, even if Jordan is considered a US ally and a peace-partner with Israel. Peace is not breaking out in Gaza; the Arabic-speaking populations of the region are fiery supporters of Hamas-led jihad. And American, European, Russian and Chines support of Hamas and their fellow travelers clearly reveal that insults of the nations are PC across the globe at this point. YHVH is watching, and the God of Jacob is writing everything down in His books:

“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one of them according to their deeds” (Revelation 20:11-13)

The insults of the nations – cooperating with the enemies of Israel

The famous American baseball player Yogi Berra one spoke a memorable quote: “It’s déjà vue all over again!” A recent event at the UN accurately reflects this same dynamic. Here is some historical background and context:

“On December 23, 2016, the United Nations announced the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemns Israeli settlements east of the 1949 armistice line, that is, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem (including the Old City with its ancient Jewish Quarter). Passage of this resolution became possible only because of the deliberate refusal of any of the five permanent members of the Security Council, including the U.S., to exercise their veto power. Secretary of State John Kerry insisted that in refusing to veto the resolution, the Obama administration was simply conforming to long-standing American policy in favor of ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by means of the so-called ‘two state solution,’ a policy that has also included his country’s condemnation of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank”

This Resolution 2334 of December 23, 2016 actually violated previous US-sponsored UN Resolution 242 of November 24, 1967, which recognized Israel’s right to retain and settle in territories it had retaken in June 1967. The Obama administration’s behind-the-scenes muscling though of Resolution 2334 unfortunately established a UN precedent: the world’s highest diplomatic authority condemned a Jewish presence in ancient Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount and at the Western Wall. By enabling Resolution 2334, US President Obama violated one of the major operative principles of the Oslo Accords, adopting the PLO/Palestinian Authority’s policy of trying to impose a solution on Israel from the outside.

This tactic (of working behind the scenes to pass UN resolutions harmful to Israel) was harshly condemned by the Jewish state, though the passage of this Resolution was met by loud applause in the packed Security Council chamber (see Psalm 2:1-3). At that time, a senior Israeli official noted:

“The US administration secretly cooked up with the Palestinians an extreme anti-Israeli resolution behind Israel’s back which would be a tailwind for terror and boycotts and effectively make the Western Wall occupied Palestinian territory . . . President Obama could declare his willingness to veto this resolution in an instant but instead is pushing it. This is an abandonment of Israel which breaks decades of US policy of protecting Israel at the UN . . . All the signs show that this was a [diplomatic] hit by Obama against Netanyahu and the settlements”

But POTUS Obama’s abandonment of Israel was not a first for the American State Department. Former US Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford all permitted the UN General Assembly and/or the Security Council to adopt resolutions critical of the Jewish state. POTUS Ronald Reagan saw 21 anti-Israel measures ratified through the UN during his terms of office. POTUS George H.W. Bush allowed nine, POTUS Bill Clinton three and POTUS George W. Bush six. In November 1981 the Reagan administration voted in favor of a General Assembly resolution condemning Israel’s air strikes on the OSIRAK Iraqi nuclear reactor. Not standing up for Israel seems to be a bi-partisan trend at times.

It is worth remembering that, a decade later on October 28, 1991, US Defense Secretary Dick Cheney praised and thanked Israel for that same OSIRAK attack: “Let me tonight in front of this group thank my good friend David Ivry [IAF Chief] for the action Israel took in 1981 with respect to the [Osirak] reactor . . . There were many times during the course of the build-up in the Gulf and the subsequent conflict that I gave thanks for the bold and dramatic action that had been taken [by Israel] some ten years before.”

The insults of the nations – recent cooperation with the enemies of Israel

On March 25, 2024 the exact same scenario (a repeat of December 23, 2016’s Resolution 2334) took place at the UN Security Council, with the US refusing to veto Resolution 2728. This resolution was drawn up by Russia and China, pressuring Israel to accept an unconditional ceasefire – one which would preserve a Hamas terrorist stronghold in Gaza and leave Israeli hostages imprisoned in Hamas’ cruel hands. In another moment of déjà vu, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby echoed former Secretary of State John Kerry’s 2016 fig-leaf avowal: “Our vote does not – and I repeat that – does not represent a shift in our policy.”

As British commentator Melanie Phillips noted: “So both the US and UK are now aligned with the west’s foes Russia and China against Israel, the sole defender of the west in the Middle East.”

Former Director of the CIA and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added his criticism of the Biden administration’s UN abstention:

“Hamas, when they saw the abstention, were thrilled. The Chinese Communist Party? Happier than heck. The Russians? Happier than heck. The Iranians? Absolutely beyond themselves, thrilled that the United States of America refused to stand up for its ally. I think that’s so telling. That’s very risky, for every American, when you see the United States walk away from its long-term strategic ally and friend in the Middle East.”

Hamas has refused many times so far to acquiesce to the release of Israeli hostages, as per its recent announcement:

“The Hamas movement informed the mediators a short time ago that it maintains its position which it presented on 14.3 according to which the occupation's answer [to the deal proposal] does not meet [Hamas’] basic demands of our people and the resistance and they are: A comprehensive ceasefire, a withdrawal from the Strip, the return of the displaced to their homes and a real prisoner exchange deal. The movement emphasizes once again that Netanyahu and his extreme government bear full responsibility for the failure of the negotiation efforts and for placing obstacles in the way of reaching an agreement until now.”

The US has smoothed the way for a Hamas victory on this point, and for a defeat to its ally Israel – all in one fell swoop. This ‘good news’ was immediately greeted by 12 new rocket attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad against Israel, and by over 100 rocket attacks form Lebanese Hezbollah against northern Israel. A victory meeting was held in Tehran between Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Palestinian Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Ziyad al-Nakhala, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khameini and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. Haniyeh crowed at the meeting that the US abstention at the UN “indicates the unprecedented political isolation experienced by the Israeli occupation.”

The prophetic acts of YHVH

The Bible describes something which theologians call ‘prophetic acts.’ These are physical acts initiated by a prophet which symbolizes and herald a new action on the part of the God of Israel. The physical act is a prophetic declaration that something has just happened in God’s plan; something has changed on earth,’ and something new is about to be manifested. Here are four such biblical examples:

The ten plagues
“For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and fatally strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the human firstborn to animals; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments – I am YHVH” (Exodus 12:12)

Samuel’ cloak torn by Saul

But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of YHVH, and YHVH has rejected you from being king over Israel.” Then Samuel turned to go, but Saul grasped the edge of his robe, and it tore off. So Samuel said to him, “YHVH has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor, who is better than you” (1 Samuel 15:26-28)

Ahijah’s new cloak

Then Jeroboam the son of Nebat . . . rebelled against the king . . . And it came about at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Now Ahijah had clothed himself with a new cloak; and both of them were alone in the field. Then Ahijah took hold of the new cloak which was on him and tore it into twelve pieces. And he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces; for this is what YHVH, the God of Israel says: ‘Behold, I am going to tear the kingdom away from the hand of Solomon and give you ten tribes (but he shall have one tribe, for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel’” (1 Kings 11:26-32)

Joash’s arrows and Elisha

When Elisha became sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over him and said, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and arrows.” So he took a bow and arrows. Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Lay your hand on the bow.” And he laid his hand on it, then Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. And he said, “Open the window toward the east,” and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot!” So he shot. And he said, “YHVH’s arrow of victory, and the arrow of victory over Aram! For you will defeat the Arameans at Aphek until you have put an end to them.” Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground,” and he struck it three times and stopped. Then the man of God became angry at him and said, “You should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck Aram until you put an end to it. But now you shall strike Aram only three times” (2 Kings 13:14-19)

The wondrous works of God on Planet Earth did not cease in Elisha’s day. God still speaks to Israel and to the nations through prophetic acts. I remember back in 1991 how Saddam Hussein’s forces were defeated and when that defeat was announced in Israel – on the Feast of Purim. As Israelis took off their gas masks that day and put on their celebratory Purim masks, this prophetic symbolism spoke to the hearts of many in that country. And in our day, God seems again to be speaking to the world – the world that He beholds through Israel the apple of His eye.

Broken bridges in Baltimore

The US abstention at the UN occurred on Monday, March 25, 2024. One day later, on Tuesday March 26, just before 01:30 am, the 984-feet long Singapore-flagged container vessel the MV DALI lost power, began drifting, and quickly smashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland. This bridge, a main commercial artery for America, collapsed in a matter of seconds. That bridge (which opened in March 1977 after five years of construction and cost an estimated $110 million), is named after the poet Francis Scott Key who in 1814 wrote the lyrics for America’s national anthem ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ In 1931 an Act of Congress signed by POTUS Herbert Hoover adopted Key’s song as the American national anthem more than a century after its first publication.

Many commentators were quick to see dramatic symbolism in this tragedy, but few of them have the prophetic software to recognize any connection here vis-à-vis God’s perspectives on America and Israel.

The continuing downgrade in interactions between the present US administration on the State of Israel is very much in the news, and is the substance of many op-eds and social media programs. As former Israeli Foreign Minister remarked in the name he chose for his above-mentioned book Broken Covenant, could it be that this broken bridge is God’s way of pointing to His perspective regarding America’s stance vis-à-vis Israel? Is YHVH speaking to America, and especially to intercessors in the US and worldwide, that the spurning and abandoning of Israel is not something that YHVH the Warrior (see Exodus 15:3) takes lightly?

Speaking of a Singapore connection, it is instructive to note that on Sunday March 25, 2024, Singapore’s Minister of Home Affairs, K. Shanmugan, ordered the country’s Foreign Ministry to insist that the Israeli Embassy remove a post on their official Facebook page which Singapore’s authorities deemed offensive. The Israeli post stated: “Israel is mentioned 43 times in the Quran. On the other hand, Palestine is not mentioned even once . . . Each and every archeological evidence – maps, documents, coins – link the land of Israel to the Jewish people as the indigenous people of the land.” This documented fact was deemed dangerous and unacceptable:

Minister Shanmugam stated “that post on the Israeli embassy's social media page is completely unacceptable. I was very upset when I was told about it. The post is wrong at many levels. It is insensitive and inappropriate. It carries the risk of undermining our safety, security, and harmony in Singapore . . . Posts like these can… inflame tensions and can put the Jewish community here at risk. The anger from the post can potentially spill over into the physical realm,” he added.

Shanmugam added: “This post is an astonishing attempt to rewrite history. The writer of the post should look at UN resolutions, see if Israel’s actions in the past few decades have been consistent with international law before trying to rewrite history.” He added that the post had “selectively [pointed] to religious texts” to make a political point and it was “even worse” that the post made use of the Koran for this purpose: “Often embassies say and put out post statements which we may disagree with but we generally don’t intervene because they represent sovereign countries which have autonomy but where it affects the safety and security of people in Singapore, the peace and harmony that we enjoy, we do and we will intervene,” he said.

Earlier on Monday, Singapore’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan similarly addressed the Israeli embassy’s post, stating: “It is highly inappropriate to refer to sacred texts to make political points. We have made this clear to the embassy which has taken the post down.”

Outlasting Babylon

There is a popular Hebrew expression: “We survived Pharaoh. This current challenge we will also survive!” The Jewish nation, by God’s grace and protective love, has weathered the fierce storms of the Philistines, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the jihadi armies of Muhammad, the Crusaders, the pogroms of Ukraine’s Chmielnicki and Tsarist Russia, Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’ and Stalin’s Yevsektsiya. Today we are weathering the storms of jihadi terrorism, its comrades and supporters across the globe. “For I, YHVH, do not change! Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed!” (Malachi 3:6).

How should we then pray?

Pray for the leaders of your nation and church to receive divine revelation and repentance regarding what God defines as ‘insults against Israel the people and Israel the land'

Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 134 Israeli hostages (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Part of these 134 that Hamas is also holding onto includes at least 35 corpses of Israeli citizens, held as bargaining chips

Pray for Hamas’ cruel terror dictatorship in Gaza to be decisively shattered and for all chains broken off the Palestinians living there, and for Iran’s role in jihadi deception, dissimulation and anti-Semitism to be exposed and opposed by world leaders

Pray that Israel’s leadership be granted justice, clarity, moral courage, discernment and divine strategies in utterly destroying the jihadi threat in all of its aspects, and for minimal loss of life for Israel’s defense forces and for those Gazans who are truly innocent

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to: FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212 – 1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

There’s a Man goin’ ‘round takin’ names

YHVH has a long memory. He remembers His friends and makes note of His enemies:

But Zion said, “YHVH has abandoned me, and Adonai has forgotten me.” Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you! Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands! Your walls are continually before Me! (Isaiah 49:14-16).

God’s long memory also extends to those nations who attempt to weaken or destroy the Jewish people. He swears on His own holy Name to take vengeance on Israel’s enemies:

“And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Then YHVH said to Moses, ‘Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly wipe out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.’ And Moses built an altar and named it YHVH is My Banner; and he said, ‘Because YAH has sworn [literally, with His own hand placed on His divine throne], YHVH will have war against Amalek from generation to generation’” (Exodus 17:13-16).

The Feast of Esther (also known as Purim) lays out this divine game-plan. Persia, then the world’s chief super-power, was influenced by Haman (a deep-state actor) to wreak havoc and genocide against the Jewish people. Yet the God of Jacob (whose name is never even mentioned in the Scroll of Esther) moves silently behind the scenes, morphing anti-Jewish conspiracy into Jewish victory:

“YHVH nullifies the plan of nations. He frustrates the plans of peoples. The plan of YHVH stands forever – the plans of His heart from generation to generation. Blessed is the nation whose God is YHVH, the people He has chosen for His own inheritance” (Psalm 33:10-12).

This international principle (that haters of Israel will be hoisted on the gallows they have built against Israel) is how the Bible fleshes out Genesis 12:3 (i.e., those who disdain Israel will be cursed by YHVH’s own hand)”

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a person sows, this he will also reap!” (Galatians 6:7).

The prophetic principle of Persian Purim

Haman pulled the strings controlling King Ahasuerus, taking a full Persian calendar year to choose the most astrologically suitable date for destroying the entire Jewish nation living under the control of the Persian Empire. With deadly calm, similar to how the Nazis planned the Final Solution at Wannsee on January 20, 1942, Haman set his genocidal plan into motion:

“In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, Pur (that is, the ‘lot’) was cast before Haman from day to day and from month to month, until the twelfth month, that is the month Adar. Then Haman said . . . ‘There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of all other people and they do not comply with the king’s laws. So it is not in the king’s interest to let them remain. If it is pleasing to the king, let it be decreed that they be eliminated’” (Esther 3:7-9).

The response of the God of Jacob was not long in coming. He granted favor to Queen Esther, brought Mordechai into the King’s council, and gave carte blanche to the nation of Israel to defeat their anti-Semitic enemies:

Now in the twelfth month (that is, the month Adar), on the thirteenth day, when the king’s command and edict were to be put into effect, on the day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, it turned out to the contrary so that the Jews themselves gained mastery over those who hated them. The Jews assembled in their cities throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus to attack those who sought to harm them; and no one could stand against them, because the dread of them had fallen on all the peoples . . . So the Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying; and they did as they pleased to those who hated them. At the citadel in Susa the Jews killed and eliminated five hundred men, and they killed . . . the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jews’ enemy . . . So the king commanded that it was to be done so, . . . and [the bodies of] Haman’s ten sons were hanged [on the public gallows]. The Jews who were in Susa assembled also on the fourteenth day of the month Adar and killed three hundred men in Susa . . . Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces assembled, to defend their lives and rid themselves of their enemies, and to kill 75,000 of those who hated them . . . This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing. But the Jews who were in Susa assembled on the thirteenth and the fourteenth of the same month, and they rested on the fifteenth day and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing . . . Then Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, obliging them to celebrate the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same month, annually, because on those days the Jews rid themselves of their enemies, and it was a month which was turned for them from grief into joy, and from mourning into a holiday . . . Therefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. And because of the instructions in this letter, both what they had seen in this regard and what had happened to them, the Jews established and made a custom for themselves, their descendants, and for all those who allied themselves with them, so that they would not fail to celebrate these two days according to their regulation and according to their appointed time annually. So these days were to be remembered and celebrated throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and these days of Purim were not to be neglected by the Jews, or their memory fade from their descendants (Esther 9:1-28)

God established the Feast of Purim as a day for Jews to remember and celebrate for the rest of Jewish history. God’s response to Haman’s planned genocide – even though at that time no Jews had yet been slaughtered – was the annihilation of 75,800 citizens of the Persian Empire. What would the God of Israel’s response be to the Gazan pogroms of October 7 – Hamas’ planned genocide of the Jewish people? And which side would you be on in such a clash – on the side of Haman/Hamas or on the side of those Persians who supported the Jewish people (as it says in Esther 9:27: “The Jews established and made a custom for themselves, their descendants, and for all those who allied themselves with them”)? God remembers and takes note.

Johnny Cash said it well in one of the last songs he penned, titled ‘When the Man comes around’:

“There’s a man goin’ round takin’ names, and He decides who to free and who to blame. Everybody won’t be treated all the same.

There’ll be a golden ladder reachin’ down when the Man comes around.

Whoever is unjust, let him be unjust still. Whoever is righteous, let him be righteous still.

Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still. Listen to the words long written down when the Man comes around.”

(American IV: The Man Comes Around; May 24, 2002; John Cash; BMG Rights Management)

In every generation

It’s not surprising that Jewish holidays often center around attempts to destroy the Jewish people. There’s “nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). The famous Hebrew Passover song ‘V’hi she’amda’ graphically charts this biblical and historical principle: “For not only has one nation risen up to annihilate us, but actually in every generation they rise up to destroy us. But the Holy One blessed be He, rescues us from out of their hand!” The Jewish nation may sometimes be paranoid, but even paranoid people can have real enemies.

The modern State of Israel has enemies, and some allies who sometimes act like enemies. See Melanie Phillips’ sizzling article ‘The American Betrayal of Israel’ for more. Each time enemies of the Jewish state gathered to attack Israel, declaring that they would wipe her out à la Psalm 83:2-5:

For behold, Your enemies make an uproar, and those who hate You have exalted themselves. They make shrewd plans against Your people and conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, “Come, and let’s wipe them out as a nation, so that the name of Israel will no longer be remembered.” For they have conspired together with one mind; They make a covenant against You.

It has happened so many times that, as a result of enemy attacks against Jerusalem, the situation plays out with the Jewish state decisively vanquishing their enemies – massive losses for enemy forces in both ordnance and fatalities; Israel becoming stronger on the geo-political playing field, etc. Here are a few examples:

the Sinai Campaign in October 1956 against Egypt, where a combined army of Israeli, British and French troops conquered Sinai from Nasser’s forces

the 1967 Six Day War against Egypt, Syria and Jordan, where the entire Sinai, West Bank, Jerusalem and most of the Golan were returned to Israel

the 1973 Yom Kippur War, where IDF troops encircled the entire Egyptian Third Army in the Sinai and moved to within 62 miles of Cairo and 18 miles from Damascus

the 1982 Operation Grapes of Wrath against PLO and Lebanese forces, resulting in the expulsion of Yasser Arafat and the PLO from Beirut

the 2023-2024 war with Hamas, resulting in the IDF re-occupying nearly all of the Gaza Strip, destroying 75% of Hamas tunnel networks and jihadi operatives, as well as eliminating two of Hamas’ top commanders.

In 1956 and 1973, it was American pressure which held Israel back from decisively defeating Arab armies. It remains to be seen what the American role will accomplish in the current conflict. Current US administration and State Department moves at the moment do not look good for those who seek the good of Jerusalem. For further historical context, see:

Bruce Brill, Deceit of an Ally (a memoir of Yom Kippur treachery)
John Loftus and Mark Aarons, The Secret War Against the Jews (How Western Espionage Betrayed The Jewish People)

As a weakened America staggers across the international stage, surrounding ‘hyena’ nations who see the US as a big brother – like Canada, France, Netherlands and the UK – have been emboldened to circle the Jewish state, looking for just that right moment to lunge at the throat of the Daughter of Zion.

“Now these things happened . . . as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let the one who thinks he stands watch out that he does not fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:11-12)

“Sing praises to YHVH, who dwells in Zion! Declare His deeds among the peoples! For He who requires blood remembers them; He does not forget the cry of the needy. Be gracious to me, YHVH! See my oppression from those who hate me, You who lift me up from the gates of death” (Psalm 9:11-13)

Happy Purim!

How should we then pray?

Pray for the protection and deliverance of the Jewish people and their state from all Haman-like enemies

Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 136 Israelis (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Hamas is also holding onto many corpses as bargaining chips

Pray for Hamas’ cruel terror dictatorship in Gaza to be decisively shattered and for all chains broken off the Palestinians living there, and for Iran’s role in jihadi deception, dissimulation and anti-Semitism to be exposed and opposed by world leaders

Pray that Israel’s leadership be granted justice, clarity, moral courage, discernment and divine strategies in utterly destroying the jihadi threat in all of its aspects, and for minimal loss of life for Israel’s defense forces and for those Gazans who are truly innocent

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212 – 1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

Shaking a fist at the Daughter of Zion

Over 2,700 years ago, the juggernaut of Assyria (northern Iraq) marched its military through Damascus and into the Promised Land. Isaiah prophesied that Nineveh’s threatening armies would gather for a deadly assault on Jerusalem: “Yet today he will halt at Nob [modern Mount of Olives]. He shakes his fist at the Mountain of the Daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem” (Isaiah 10:32).

For nearly 4,000 years, superpowers and marauders have aimed arrow and spear, rocket and RPG at the Jewish people, their country and their capitol. Such attacks are nothing new. What is new for some of us is to learn that the God of Israel has strong opinions about such things: YHVH describes Himself as a warrior on behalf of His Jewish people, dead set against these anti-Jewish enemies: “I will sing to YHVH, for He is highly exalted – the horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea . . . YHVH is a warrior! YHVH is His name!” (Exodus 15:1-3).

The God of Israel’s promise – that He will grant military success to His Jewish people on the battlefield against their enemies – is also news for some Christians: “Hear, O Israel: you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted! Do not be afraid, or panic, or be terrified by them, for YHVH your God is the One who is going with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you” (Deuteronomy 20:3-4).

King David was not only a worshipper; he was also a brave warrior. He declared divine intentions regarding the Jewish people’s destiny on the battlefield. “Now David spoke the words of this song to YHVH . . . ‘He trains my hands for battle so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze . . . I pursued my enemies and eliminated them, and I did not turn back until they were finished off!’” (2 Samuel 22:1, 35, 38).

It is important to get this dynamic right in our day, especially as jihadi hyenas circle the Jewish state, cheered on by superpowers and world leaders. The same God of Israel who is calling His Jewish people back to their Promised Land, stands with His Jewish people as they engage their enemies face to face (see Ezekiel 37:10-12) – among others, the descendants of Edom (Ezekiel 25:14) and Ishmael (Psalm 83:6)

The Rasputin of Iran

Just prior to the Communist Revolution of 1917, a mentally disturbed Siberian peasant monk by the name of Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin exercised great and insidious influence over Russian Czar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra. Today, the term ‘Rasputin’ refers to anyone who exercises the same dangerous influence. The Islamic Republic of Iran and its Revolutionary Guards can accurately be labeled a Rasputin-like force for war and instability in the Middle East. Like ancient Persia’s Haman in the Book of Esther, Iran’s leaders are aggressively moving to destroy Mordechai’s people and their reborn Jewish state. Like the Pharaohs of Abraham’s and Moses’ day, Persia/Iran’s goal is the total destruction of Jacob’s seed.

Over the past 30 years Iran has raised up proxies – jihadi terror groups throughout the ‘Shi’ite Crescent’ – in Lebanon and Syria (Hezbollah), Iraq (Kata’eb Hezbollah), Yemen (the Houthis), and sleeper cells throughout South America, Central America and North America. Iran is concurrently developing nuclear weapons with the clearly stated purpose being Israel’s destruction. The current wars between Hamas and Israel, and between Hezbollah and Israel, are part and parcel of Iran’s regional strategy – the surrounding and assaulting of Israel from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen with an annihilating wave of missiles and drones.

As Purim draws near, let’s keep praying for the protection of the Jewish people and their state from the Prince of Persia and his wily allies.

Sweet and bitter from the same spring

James (also known as Jacob or Ya’akov), the half-brother of Yeshua, tells us that sometimes both sweet and bitter words can come out of the same person’s mouth: “With [our mouth] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people, who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things should not be this way! Does a spring send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh” (James 3:9-12).

These verses shed light on current dynamics transpiring between the Jewish state of Israel and the leadership of the United States of America. That alliance can sometimes be warm, close and productive. At other times, anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment takes the lead, with allies morphing into adversaries. Bob Dylan nails it in his song about Israel – ‘Neighborhood Bully:’ “He got no allies to really speak of. What he gets he must pay for; he don’t get it out of love. . .”

Our newsletters over the past four months have examined this Jekyll-and-Hyde relationship here. On one hand, America makes state-of-the-art military weaponry available to Israel (which the Jewish state pays for, directly to the American arms industry). On the other hand, the US State Department and POTUS rudely rebuke and threaten Israel’s Prime Minister, government and military forces, treating Israel like a problem child who needs to be spanked and sent up to his room without supper. This usually happens when Israel is on the way to decisively defeating its enemies. Recent events highlight these dynamics on steroids. They show that for America, Israel is not their priority concern in the Middle East. Thus, the US treats the Jewish state in a schizophrenic and Machiavellian fashion, strengthening the Jewish state’s enemies while simultaneously allowing munitions to flow to Israel.

Modern threats to the Daughter of Zion

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the USA found itself becoming the world’s dominant superpower. In our day, the rise of China and its alliances with Iran, North Korea and Russia spotlight a developing dynamic, first spoken about in POTUS George W. Bush’s State of the Union address on January 29, 2002. Soon after 9/11. Bush referenced North Korea, Iran and Iraq, describing these forces as ‘an axis of evil’: “States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.”

Yet recent world events have shown how, over the years, America has strengthened terror groups (PLO, Palestinian Authority), Hamas’ financial backers (Qatar, Turkey), as well as Muslim Brotherhood former President Morsi and the Islamic Republic of Iran. This requires skillful footwork on the part of the CIA, the NSA and the US State Department. It would be helpful to present some bullet points detailing some of these threats over the years, because the constant flood of ‘news’ often blocks out clear thinking and accurate remembering of important details:

Shrinking Israel’s borders, dividing Jerusalem and establishing a Palestinian terror state:

The belief system that guides American policy vis-à-vis Israel was voiced behind closed Parisian doors by then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in his meeting with Sadun Hammadi, Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs on December 17, 1975. A recently declassified State Department NSA document quotes from Kissinger’s words:

“Israel does us more harm than good in the Arab world . . . We can’t negotiate about the existence of Israel but we can reduce its size to historical proportions . . . So I think in ten to fifteen years Israel will be like Lebanon – struggling for existence, with no influence in the Arab world . . . If the issue is the existence of Israel, we can’t cooperate. But if the issue is more normal borders, we can cooperate . . . I think the Palestinian identity has to be recognized in some form . . . (It) will be a tremendous fight . . . (but) no solution is possible without it.”

POTUS Biden’s recent March 7, 2024 State of the Union address emphasizes these same points:

“As we look to the future, the only real solution to the situation is a two-state solution over time. And I say this as a lifelong supporter of Israel . . . But there is no other path that guarantees Israel’s security and democracy. There is no other path that guarantees that Palestinians can live in peace with peace and dignity. And there is no other path that guarantees peace between Israel and all of its neighbors – including Saudi Arabia” (President Joe Biden; 2024 State of the Union address)

Threatening a US arms embargo against Israel unless the Jewish state obeys American orders and retreats from destroying Hamas:

Media leaks are appearing that POTUS Biden could condition military aid to Israel on whether or not Rafah (where Hamas’ leadership is holed up along with the 134 Israeli hostages) is invaded by the IDF.

Accusing Israel of indiscriminate slaughter of Gazans – based on wildly inaccurate figures from Hamas:

In every clash between Israel and Hamas, the jihadi terrorists use their own Gazan civilians as human shields, firing against Israeli civilians from Gazan civilian areas. Hamas then blames Israel for any Gazan civilian casualties, and then exaggerates the amount of those casualties. This latest war is no exception:

Attempting to catalyze an American coup d'état – pushing to remove Israel’s Prime Minister and party, and to replace him with someone more responsive to American demands

US administration and intelligence officials have recently been outspoken in calling for Israeli PM Netanyahu’s ouster. Such actions are not considered normal diplomatic behavior in America, and the strong impression is given here that the US government is treating Israel like a banana republic. The cumulative effects of the following facts reveal how the Biden administration is seeking to overthrow Israel’s government at this moment:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/harris-its-important-to-distinguish-between-israeli-people-and-government/ VP Kamala Harris March 9, 2024: “I think it is important to distinguish, or at least not conflate, the Israeli government with the Israeli people”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-senator-chuck-schumers-speech-israeli-elections-are-the-only-way/ Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, March 14, 2024: “Four major obstacles standing in the way of two states, and until they are removed from the equation, there will never be peace in Israel and Gaza and the West Bank – Radical right-wing Israelis in government and society. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu”

CIA unclassified briefing; Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released March 18, 2024: “Netanyahu's viability as leader as well as his governing coalition of far-right and ultraorthodox parties that pursued hardline policies on Palestinian and security issues may be in jeopardy. Distrust of Netanyahu’s ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public from its already high levels before the war, and we expect large protests demanding his resignation and new elections. A different, more moderate government is a possibility”

A comment of one Israeli expert frequently consulted by American officials, March 19, 2024: “I have been asked by a serious administration figure what it is that will force the Netanyahu coalition to collapse. They were interested in the mechanics, what can we demand which will collapse his coalition”

Ex-CIA, ex-Pentagon, ex-military and Congressmen release letter calling on POTUS to force Israeli compliance to administration demands, December 18, 2023

Carolyn Glick’s analysis of March 19, 2024 is particularly insightful – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrtZVsqIgO8

PM Netanyahu’s Likud party responded to US State Department attacks, stating that “Israel is not a banana republic but an independent and proud democracy . . . Contrary to Schumer's words, the Israeli public supports a complete victory over Hamas, rejects any international dictate to establish a Palestinian terrorist state, and opposes the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza . . . [The senator] is expected to respect Israel's elected government and not undermine it. This is always true, and even more so in wartime."

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog called Schumer's comments “counterproductive”: “Israel is a sovereign democracy. It is unhelpful, all the more so as Israel is at war against the genocidal terror organization Hamas, to comment on the domestic political scene of a democratic ally. It is counterproductive to our common goals.” US criticism of Israel only encourages Hamas in its war against the Jewish state, said Netanyahu.

On March 4, 2024 Israeli Defense Minister was invited by Washington to meet with VP Kamala Harris and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and members of the Senate Foreign Relations committee. The trip was organized without PM Netanyahu’s approval and contrary to government regulations that require “every minister to clear travel in advance with the prime minister, including approval of the travel plan.” “Who's playing who? Is Gantz leveraging his Washington sojourn to position himself as Netanyahu's successor, or is the Biden administration using him to recalibrate its stance towards Israel?” Or is this another piece in the coup d’état puzzle?

Falsely accusing the Israeli settlement enterprise of being illegal

US administration officials under POTUS Biden have reversed former POTUS Trump’s declaration (and POTUS Reagan’s as well) regarding Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria (popularly known as the West Bank). Trump and Reagan stated that these settlements are not illegal, but the present administration has reversed that policy.

Professor Eugene Rostow, former Dean of Yale Law School and Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs was one of the main drafters of UN Security Council Resolution 242. His unequivocal legal opinion was that Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria is legal. This opinion was included in the Congressional Record of the US government in 2014: “We have no doubt that from the perspective of international law, the establishment of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria is not illegal.”

In the days of Isaiah, similar scare tactics and threats were used against the Jewish people. The prophet declared, “Devise a plan, but it will fail. Declare your strategic plan, but it will not stand, for Immanuel [God is with us]!” (Isaiah 8:10).

In Nehemiah’s day, the inhabitants of Jordan and various Arabs were much opposed to the Jewish people’s restoration to their Promised Land (even as some are opposed to the Jewish people’s restoration to Gaza, part of the Promised Land according to Joshua 15:47): “And when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about it, it was very displeasing to them that someone had come to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel” (Nehemiah 2:10).

Two thousand years ago, some Messianic Jewish believers prayed to the God of Jacob, in the name of Messiah Yeshua: “And now Lord, look at their threats!” (Acts 4:29).

These present efforts to block the return of the Jewish people to their Promised Land puts these modern nations in direct opposition to Isaiah 60-62 and Jeremiah 30 et al.

Undercutting Israel’s military leverage – to Hamas’ military advantage and to the hostages’ detriment

In what seems only a few days back, Hamas raped, tortured and murdered its way through kibbutzim and towns next to Gaza. The jihadi terror groups murdered over 1200 Israeli citizens and kidnapped over 250 to cruel prisons, torture chambers and rape facilities in Gaza. As the IDF has attempted to free hostages and exchange Hamas murderers for innocent Israeli civilians, one of the few weapons at Israel’s disposal is the leverage that can come from squeezing Hamas and its supporters (which is the vast majority of all most Gazans) – applying painful pressure until all Israeli kidnap victims are released. But US policy is adamantly opposed to this. As a result, Israeli abilities to exert pressure on Hamas and get back its hostages have been decisively weakened.

The fuel which powers Hamas air conditioning and electricity in its maze of rats-nest tunnels keeps coming through Israel to Hamas – due to American pressure. The food supplies which (if suspended) would have starved Hamas into a quick surrender are being forced through American pressure on Israel, to reach Gazan Hamastan, where nearly all of it is hijacked by Hamas to feed its jihadi fighters.

Israel’s heroic and ethical concerns to avoid Gazan civilian casualties are being ignored by world media, who flood the world’s TV screens with Hamas propaganda about civilian casualties and supposed starvation – even though there is no famine in Gaza according to open source reporting.

American Islamic domestic pressure against Israel

The US Democratic Party is dealing with pressures from certain Arab and Islamic voting blocks in key areas this election year. A group of eight lawmakers known as ‘The Squad’ are anti-Israel activists in Congress. Their influence in Michigan is strategically significant in the coming elections. Biden’s bloc is trying not to offend this group, and as a result is attempting to make moves which will placate pro-Hamas voters.

Henry Kissinger once sarcastically stated that Israel has no foreign policy, only domestic politics. POTUS Biden and State Department officials recently have floated that same idea. But PM Netanyahu referred to the opposite dynamic of Kissinger’s jibe at a recent Washington AIPAC meeting: “The description [from Washington] is you have an outlier prime minister with some extreme fringe groups and that’s what’s driving the policy. False. I would say deliberately false. They know it’s false. But that falsehood is perpetrated and it’s wrong. They keep saying that local politics is interfering with this. They may be right, [he continued]! On which side of the pond?”

Stand your ground!

The accumulated effect of these international pressures reminds one of Ezekiel 38:4, where YHVH is described as putting hooks into the jaws of the nations and drawing them down to Israel, there to face divine judgment.

The need of the hour is a ‘Remember the Alamo!’ resolve – a stiff-necked ‘standing one ground’ in the face of international threats and pressure. Elisha the prophet reminds us to be bold in our efforts – to ‘strike the ground seven times’ if we truly want to see deliverance (2 Kings 13:18-19).

The God of Jacob tells His people Israel: “Arise and thresh, Daughter of Zion! For I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze, so that you may pulverize many peoples, and dedicate to YHVH their unjust profit, and their wealth to the Lord of all the earth!” (Micah 4:13).

How should we then pray?

Pray for the leaders of the Jewish people and for all Israel to receive revelation, discernment and divine strategies on how to respond to international threats

Pray for the nations of the world to receive revelation and wisdom on how not to get swept into this river of witchcraft and lies

Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 136 Israelis (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Hamas is also holding onto many corpses as bargaining chips

Pray for Hamas’ cruel terror dictatorship in Gaza to be decisively shattered and for all chains broken off the Palestinians living there, and for Iran’s role in jihadi deception, dissimulation and anti-Semitism to be exposed and opposed by world leaders

Pray that Israel’s leadership be granted justice, clarity, moral courage, discernment and divine strategies in utterly destroying the jihadi threat in all of its aspects, and for minimal loss of life for Israel’s defense forces and for those Gazans who are truly innocent

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212 – 1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

The Emperor’s New Clothes

Hans Christian Andersen published a children’s fairy tale in 1837 titled ‘The Emperor's New Clothes’ (Danish, Kejserens nye klæder). His story was based on an even older Indian anthology of fables – the Nirvāṇalīlāvatī of Jineśvara – dated to 1052.

In the original Indian fable, a dishonest merchant swindles the king of Śrāvastī (a town located in modern Uttar Pradesh) by offering to weave an expensive supernatural garment which cannot be seen or touched by a person of illegitimate birth. The merchant ‘clothes’ the king in these invisible robes, and presents him before his flattering court. They all pretend to admire the wondrous attire. He is then paraded about his city ‘wearing’ the ‘new royal clothes.’ A brave peasant asks him if he has become a sadhu (holy hermits who sometimes walk around unclothed). The Raj at last realizes that he is the victim of a deceptive scam, but it’s too late! The swindler has already made off with his dishonestly gained loot.

In the political sphere, diplomats and presidents also weave ‘the Emperor’s New Clothes’ – verbal fantasies, schemes and traps –which similarly lack truth and reality. In the Middle East these are sometimes described as ‘peace accords.’ But such Machiavellian schemes are unable to protect Israel’s citizens from real jihadi threats. These superpower intrigues are commonplace, but they will never bring peace. They are invisible pipe-dreams built on sinking sand, and their proffered solutions are as ephemeral as the desert winds.

The current war between Israel and her immediate enemies – the Iranian-supported ‘axis of evil’ (Gaza’s Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Lebanese and Syrian Hezbollah, Iraq’s Kata’eb Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis, etc.) – has thrown a spotlight on another ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ dynamic, one to which most news media and op-ed commentators are blind.

Here are the ‘naked’ realities behind these ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ – an uncovering of how these ‘politically correct’ international ‘peace strategies,’ crafted for Middle Eastern consumers, are totally off base. A look at how some Arab countries (who are supposedly peace partners of Israel) have responded to the jihadi atrocities of Hamas on October 7, 2023, reveals the true state-of-affairs between Israel and its Islamic neighbors, as well as the actual dangers confronting the Jewish state.

The battlefield test of reality

A healthy normal reaction to Hamas’ jihadi massacres, rapes and tortures, would be shock, disgust, anger, compassion and a desire to protect Israel and stand with her as a true ally – if these nations truly were peace partners with Israel. But how has it worked out in reality? The answers are depressing but not surprising. The Psalmist saw those same cruel dynamics nearly 3,000 years ago; they have not changed, even in our day:

“Woe to me, for I reside in Meshech! For I have settled among the tents of Kedar [ed., a region in Saudi Arabia]! Too long has my soul had its dwelling with those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war” (Psalm 120:5-7).

Young David had to deal with similar dynamics. At one point before he became king, David had escaped from Saul’s assassination squads to a region just east of Philistine Gaza. There he found protection under the Philistine chieftain Achish. Eventually the Philistines massed their armies in a major assault against King Saul and all Israel. David found himself in a difficult situation. He would certainly not raise his sword against his own people. But how could he extricate himself from following his Philistine ‘allies’ into this fateful battle against Saul and his armies? The opening skirmishes of the Battle of Gilboa reveal what the Philistines’ real attitude was toward David the Hebrew warrior:

Now the Philistines gathered all their armies to Aphek, while the Israelites were camping by the spring which is in Jezreel.And the military commanders of the Philistines were proceeding on, leading hundreds and thousands, and David and his men were proceeding in the back [of the military procession] with Achish. Then the commanders of the Philistines said, “What are these Hebrews doing here?” And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, “Is this not David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who has been with me these days, or rather these years, and I have found nothing at all suspicious in him since the day he deserted to me to this day?” But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with [Achish], and the commanders of the Philistines said to him, “Make the man go back, so that he will return to his place where you have assigned him, and do not let him go down to battle with us, or in the battle he may become an adversary to us. For how could this man find favor with his lord [King Saul]? Would it not be with the heads of these [Philistine] men? Is this not David, of whom they sing in the dances, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?’” (1 Samuel 29:1-5)

These Philistine generals were gruff military men. They knew that the tenuous ‘peace’ between the Philistine king Achish and David was not ‘a marriage made in heaven,’ It could collapse at any moment – even on the field of battle. They knew in their gut that such ‘peace accords’ were not to be depended upon. In the same way, in our day Egypt and Jordan, Morocco and Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are undependable weak reeds, easily breaking apart in times of crisis. These nations are not dependable ‘peace partners,’ as Isaiah so eloquently stated:

“Behold, you have relied on the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him” (Isaiah 36:6).

Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with She’ol we have made a pact. The gushing flood will not reach us when it passes by – because we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception.” (Isaiah 28:15)

Egypt – a cold heart, a cold peace

Egypt is one of the original biblical superpowers. Its power and influence were always a threat to the Jewish state:

Therefore this is what YHVH God of armies says: “My people, you who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian who strikes you with the rod, and lifts up his staff against you the way Egypt did” (Isaiah 10:24)

Though Egypt was originally a Hamitic (non-Abrahamic) country (see Psalm 78:51; Psalm 105:23) and remains mostly Hamitic to this day, the Bedouin of Mohammed’s jihadi armies conquered that land, forcing the inhabitants to bow the knee to Islam or face decapitation or slavery, and making Arabic the national language. Modern Egyptians are thus a blend of ancient Hamitic Copts, Hamitic Sudanese, and a sprinkling of Ishmaelite Islamist colonizers.

The loathing of the Jewish people which was injected into Egyptian society owes its origins to classical Islam’s anti-Jewish roots.

Asiem El-Difraoui, a Middle East expert with the Berlin Institute for Media and Communications Policy, explains: “The views of the Egyptian people are extremely anti-Israeli . . . The peace created by the Camp David agreement is, in reality, a very cold peace.”

The former Grand Mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Ali Gomaa, said in an October 19, 2023 address delivered in the Egyptian parliament:

“From this blessed house, I am sending a message to the Israeli government. That Zionist state – or rather, that Zionist entity – seems to have grown old, and the time for its demise has come. It is time for it to be gone”

Egypt – led by a Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas-affiliated President

The former President of Egypt Mohammad Morsi (2012-2013) was an official member of the Muslim Brotherhood – the spawning ground for the PLO, al Qa’eda, Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. In 1995, he became a member of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau, the group’s highest decision-making body. Morsi was chosen as a member of the Zionist Resistance Committee, and was a founding member in the Egyptian Committee for Combating the Zionist Project. In 2010 Morsi publicly referred to the “Zionists [as] bloodsuckers and warmongers, and descendants of pigs and apes.” In 2012, the year he became President of Egypt, Morsi declared:

“They (Israelis) have to be driven out of our lands. Therefore, these negotiations must stop once and for all. Everybody must turn to the support of the resistance.” Morsi also rejected the planned two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians in an interview with al-Quds TV, which is close to the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas: “We want a country for the Palestinians on the entire land of Palestine on the basis of Palestinian citizenship. . . All the talk about a two-state solution and about peace is nothing but an illusion, which the Arabs have been chasing for a long time now.”

On June 24, 2012, just prior to becoming President, Morsi stated to an Iranian reporter from the Fars Network: “We will reconsider the Camp David Accord” the US-brokered ‘peace treaty’ between Israel and Egypt. This ‘peace accord’ involved Israel pulling back from Sinai, taken by the Jewish state in the defensive Six Day War in June 1967.

During that same year Morsi visited Iran, the first visit by an Egyptian leader since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution. “We must restore normal relations with Iran based on shared interests and expand areas of political coordination and economic cooperation because this will create a balance of pressure in the region,” he stated.

According to Egyptian journalist Adnan Abu Amer, Mohammed Morsi was a true friend to Hamas in Gaza: “Morsi drew Hamas closer . . . He met them frequently in Egypt, often in the closed rooms of the secret services, which was unusual for an Egyptian president”

Egypt – ripping up the ‘peace accords’

Two recent comments from Egyptian Members of Parliament reveal that anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli attitudes are actually mainstream in that country:

On November 21, 2023 Egyptian MP Mustafa Bakri stated to the House:

“The Egyptians are boiling with rage! We are boiling with rage! We cannot tolerate what is happening. We no longer care whether we live or die. We are all prepared to become martyrs for the sake of Palestine and Egypt. But when it comes to crisis management – freeze relations [with Israel]! Recall our ambassador [from Israel] and deport the [Israeli] dog from Egypt! Take practical steps. We are behind you, Mr. Prime Minister! We are behind you. This is the matter of life and death for us. We are all prepared to die for Egypt!”

At that same parliamentary meeting, MP Dia El-Din Dawood tore up a copy of the Camp David Accords at the podium, declaring: “We have a [peace] agreement [with Israel]. I disagree with it. This agreement ties Egypt's hands . . . If this agreement is so meaningless, we should tear it apart, for the sake of Egyptian and Arab national security . . . We should make this Nazi country face facts on the ground. [Israel] is the successor of the colonialism of the past, and the ally of present-day colonialism. It is the ally of all the colonialist regimes, in an attempt to destroy the region, with Egypt being the top prize . . . Many fall into humiliating normalization [with Israel]. We have signed an agreement [with Israel] more than fifty years ago, but here it is, torn up by the Egyptian people who have never cooperated with it.”

Many Egyptian voices (since the signing of the Camp David Accords) have repeatedly harped on their burning desire to suspend the ‘peace treaty’ with Israel and to go to war with the Jewish state. In light of that history, the recent anonymous Egyptian high-level calls for suspending the Camp David accords is nothing new, and it is not primarily a response to Israel’s highly successful military campaign, aimed at destroying Hamas’ military abilities and threats to the Jewish state:

“Biden and Netanyahu spoke after two Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat said Egypt threatened to suspend its peace treaty with Israel if troops are sent into Rafah, where Egypt fears fighting could push Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula and force the closure of Gaza’s main aid supply route. The threat [is] to suspend the Camp David Accords, a cornerstone of regional stability for nearly a half-century”

“No more war, no more bloodshed”?

Major-General (retired) Yitzhak Brik has been warning for years about concrete threats from Hamas, Hezbollah and Egypt. For the most part, the IDF’s top brass and military intelligence leaders have ignored his jeremiads, which included a clear warning about the possibility of an ‘October 7’ Hamas attack.

On February 11, 2024 Major-General Brik warned again, this time about the threat from Egypt:

“But today, there is a very big problem with Egypt. They . . . threaten that if we start doing various things that will cause masses to cross into Sinai, then they will stop the peace. Although it's a poor country, [Egypt] is the strongest army in the Middle East today – 4,000 tanks, 2,000 modern ones, hundreds of the most advanced aircraft, and a navy of the best there is. For years, they've been building highways into Sinai. We're the target. They're not building the army for anywhere else. This means [that if they make] one decision to cancel peace, they become an enemy state, and we don't even have a brigade to stand against it.”

The knee-jerk tendency of Egypt to threaten an annulment of the Camp David Accords, shows the tenuous nature both of those accords and of Egypt’s trustworthiness vis-à-vis Israel.

Egypt would happily do harm to Israel

Three power brokers are pushing for a deal between Hamas and Israel – Egypt, Qatar and the USA. All three are on record as pushing for the establishment of a Palestinian state led by terrorists on portions of the Land promised by God to the Jewish people. Egypt’s proposals in late December 2023 contain terms and conditions which would empower both Hamas and the establishment of a jihadi terrorist state in the heartland of Israel:

“The second phase would see an Egypt-sponsored ‘Palestinian national talk’ aimed at ending the division between Palestinian factions – mainly the Fatah party-dominated Palestinian Authority and Hamas – and leading to the formation of a technocratic government in the West Bank and Gaza that would oversee the reconstruction of the Strip and pave the way for Palestinian parliamentary and presidential elections.”

The third stage of the Egyptian proposal includes the release of many Palestinian jihadi terrorists who have murdered Israelis, including those who raped, murdered and tortured Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023.

At present Hamas is able to resupply its terror forces with arms, gas, food, medicine and the smuggling in of many goods that Hamas needs to continue its jihad against Israel. These all come from underground tunnels that start in Egypt and end in Hamas-controlled Gaza. Fat bribes grease the operation of these jihadi tunnels, and the Egyptian leaders of both army and intelligence allow the smooth running of this system. Hamas is very much dependent on Egypt’s support, and Egypt is very much responsible for Hamas’ survival and continuing terror activities.

The existence of an official ‘peace accord’ between Egypt and Israel does not mean that true peace exists between these countries. What is going on is even less than ‘a virtual peace.’

Jordan – condoning calls for jihad against Jewish Jerusalem

In the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan’s Parliament (House of Representatives), jihadi declarations calling for Israel’s destruction are commonplace. These are permitted by a country which has a ‘peace agreement’ with Israel.

On Tuesday, July 17, 2018, a Jordanian parliamentarian named Huda Etoom told the gathering of her late mother’s desire to be a suicide bomber and kill ‘Zionist Jews:’

“A single desire was left in her soul: to don an explosives belt and blow herself up among the Zionist Jews. This is an example of our sentiment – the sentiment of all free people . . . We shall continue to feel remiss unless we are martyred on the land of Palestine.” Etoom said the Palestinian cause “is a priority on which we must not compromise,” and called for a free state of Palestine, spanning from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.

Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh said on a November 21, 2023 Saudi Al-Arabiya Network program that peace with Israel is Jordan’s strategic choice. However, he added that if Israel breaches the peace agreement in a material and contractual manner that poses a danger to Jordan’s national security, then “all our options would be on the table.” Like Egypt, Jordan is announcing its attempts to hobble and prevent Israel from removing the threat of Hamas’ jihadi forces to the Jewish state.

Jordan’s encouraging such statements of enmity and threat to Israel in the wake of October 7 show that once again, like Egypt, there is a cold heart toward the Jewish state. Jordan is involved in strategic moves to weaken and ultimately bring down its Hebrew ‘peace partner.’

How should we then pray?

Pray for clear revelation to be given to the Jewish people and their leaders about the tenuous and deceptive nature of what is falsely called ‘the peace process’

Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 134 Israelis (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Hamas is also holding onto many corpses (35-55) as bargaining chips

Pray for Hamas’ cruel terror dictatorship in Gaza to be decisively shattered and for all chains broken off the Palestinians living there, and for Iran’s role in jihadi deception, dissimulation and anti-Semitism to be exposed and opposed by world leaders

Pray that Israel’s leadership be granted justice, clarity, moral courage, discernment and divine strategies in utterly destroying the jihadi threat in all of its aspects, and for minimal loss of life for Israel’s defense forces and for those Gazans who are truly innocent

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

The weaponization of intelligence

In the days of Moses, the twelve Jewish spies – one for each tribe of Israel – spent forty days reconnoitering throughout the Land of Israel, from south of Beersheva to the Golan Heights (Numbers 13:25-33):

When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, they went on and came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. And they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. So they reported to him and said, “We came into the land where you sent us, and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And indeed, we saw the descendants of Anak there! Amalek is living in the land of the Negev, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.”

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will certainly prevail over it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, because they are too strong for us.” So they brought a bad report of the land which they had spied out to the sons of Israel, saying, “The land through which we have gone to spy out is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are people of great stature. We also saw the Nephilim there (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim). And we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

The God of Jacob uses this historical event to warn his people: Be on guard against evil propaganda meant to sow fear or unbelief!

Warfare is not only prosecuted by force of arms; often it is carried out by striking fear into the heart of the enemy. The ancient Chinese general and military strategist Sun Tzu said: “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

Moses reminds Israel of their recent history, when the ten spies struck fear into the hearts of their own people by overestimating the power of the enemy to resist YHVH and His Jewish armies:

“Yet you were unwilling to go up. Instead, you rebelled against the command of YHVH your God. And you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because YHVH hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to hand us over to the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we. The cities are large and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we saw the sons of the Anakim there.’’ But I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, nor fear them’’ (Deuteronomy 1:26-29)

Evil reports in our day

Part of the battle going on between Hamas and Israel involves what can be called ‘information wars.’ Hamas and its main bankroller Qatar (a US ally) smother the media airwaves through their jihadi TV/media platform al Jazeera with negative propaganda. It is meant both to weaken Israeli resolve and to crush pro-Israeli support among the nations.

Those Western power brokers who are connected to Qatar and its strategic goals – including the US State Department and most American media outlets – ensure and enforce ‘evil reports’ against the Jewish state through anti-Israel reporting and op-eds.

The work of their hands is crafted to do the same as the evil report of the ten spies in Moses’ day.

Here are some very recent examples, where Israeli mainstream media and American anonymous sources spread unbelief and fear:

“US intelligence officials told members of Congress earlier this week that Israel had damaged Hamas’s combat abilities, but is not close to achieving its war aim of eliminating the terrorist organization militarily, The New York Times reports, citing ‘American officials’”

“Israel cannot beat Hamas. It's time to halt the fighting and think ahead . . . Israel will not win this war. In three critical areas Hamas, followed by Hezbollah, succeeded in setting the rules of the game, and the longer the war continues, the worse their implications will be”

The RAND Corporation: “Dealing with Hamas in Gaza puts Israel in a strategic quandary: It needs to exert enough force to deter Hamas from attacking but not so much that it topples the regime. As one Israeli defense analyst put it, ‘We want to break their bones without putting them in the hospital’”

Wall Street Journal: “Israel’s conflict with Hamas is set to be a long one – with both sides struggling to accomplish their fundamental aims and no clear path to any kind of enduring peace”

Palestinian Authority: “Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh claimed Thursday that Israel’s war goal of eradicating Hamas is impossible to achieve because the terror group exists as an ‘idea’ and many of its top members aren’t even in the Gaza Strip”

Josep Borrell, EU Foreign Policy Chief: “There is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hamas is first and foremost an idea, and you can’t kill an idea with bombs. The only way to kill a bad idea is to propose a better one, one that gives hope and confidence in a future where peace is possible. This can and must be the implementation of the two-state solution”

Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi said, at a November 8, 2023 conference organized by the Amman municipality, that “Hamas is an idea and ideas do not die”

A word to the wise, direct from YHVH

When the sons and daughters of Jacob allowed the words of an evil report to enter into their hearts and then to be confessed out of their own mouths, the God of Israel responded very soberly:

Then all the congregation raised their voices and cried out, and the people wept that night. And all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. And the entire congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or even if we had died in this wilderness! So why is YHVH bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder! Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let’s appoint a leader and return to Egypt!” (Numbers 14:1-4)

There is a spiritual responsibility and an accountability which happens when people buy into an evil report – especially when YHVH has already declared His views and perspectives about that situation.

The children of Israel had expressed what might seem to be a valid concern about the well-being of their wives and children – a fear of what harm the Canaanites and other pagan tribes might do to their families. The God of Jacob revealed that fear and unbelief were lurking behind their supposedly ‘realistic concerns.’ But that desert generation would not enter the Promised Land; their children (for whom they were supposedly afraid), would be the victorious army which would put Canaan’s pagan warriors to flight:

YHVH spoke to Moses and Aaron again, saying, “How long shall I put up with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel which they are voicing against Me. Say to them, ‘As I live,’ declares YHVH, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you; your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, all your numbered men according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. By no means will you come into the land where I swore to settle you, except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. Your children, however, whom you said would become plunder – I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected” (Numbers 14:26-31).

Instead of rebuke – encouragement

Moses’ understudy, Joshua son of Nun, was given strong words of encouragement from YHVH Himself. The God of Jacob refers Joshua back to how Israel believed an evil report, and reminds him of how YHVH promised that their children (about whom they ‘feared’) would triumph against Israel’s enemies on the battlefield:

“Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, shall himself enter there; encourage him, for he will give it to Israel as an inheritance. Moreover, your little ones who, you said, would become plunder, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good and evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them and they shall take possession of it” (Deuteronomy 1:38-39)

Some of us are physical descendants of these warriors; others walk in their spiritual army boots! All of us can draw great encouragement and strengthening from God’s strategic heart-message to us at this moment in history!

How should we then pray?

Pray for clear revelation to be given to the Jewish people, to all believers and to humanity as a whole about what is true and what is an evil report regarding Israel and Hamas

Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 136 Israelis (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Hamas is also holding onto many corpses (35-55) as bargaining chips

Pray for Hamas’ cruel terror dictatorship in Gaza to be decisively shattered and for all chains broken off the Palestinians living there, and for Iran’s role in jihadi deception, dissimulation and anti-Semitism to be exposed and opposed by world leaders

Pray that Israel’s leadership be granted justice, clarity, moral courage, discernment and divine strategies in utterly destroying the jihadi threat in all of its aspects, and for minimal loss of life for Israel’s defense forces and for those Gazans who are truly innocent

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

The Groom’s still waiting at the altar

In the Summer of 1980 Bob Dylan wrote one of his greatest songs ever, according to Rolling Stone magazine. ‘The Groom’s still waiting at the altar’ has biblical and apocalyptic language and, like his classic ‘Neighborhood Bully,’ leaves a trail of bread crumbs which leads the listener through the mists to come face-to-face with the Jewish homeland of Israel:

West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar
I see the turning of the page
Curtain risin’ on a new age
See the groom still waitin’ at the altar (Copyright © 1981 by Special Rider Music)

Israel’s location is certainly west of the Jordan River and east of the Rock of Gibraltar. And the ongoing prophetic return of the Jewish people to their Promised Land is a wake-up call to the world – a turning of the page of history, and a curtain rising on a new age, one where Messiah Yeshua will reign over the entire planet from Jerusalem:

“Behold, a son will be born to you, who shall be a man of rest [Hebrew, shalom]and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. For his name will be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a House for My name, and he shall be My son and I will be his Father. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever” (1 Chronicles 22:9-10)

Then I heard Him speaking to me from the House, while a man was standing beside me. And He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever” (Ezekiel 43:6-7a)

“And it shall be in those days when you become numerous and are fruitful in the land, declares YHVH, they will no longer say, ‘The Ark of the Covenant of YHVH’! And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor miss it, nor will it be made again. At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of YHVH,’ and all the nations will assemble at it, at Jerusalem, for the name of YHVH. And they will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil heart. In those days the House of Judah will walk with the House of Israel. And they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance” (Jeremiah 3:16-18)

“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you shall name Him ‘Yeshua.’ He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the House of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:31-33)

“And just as My Father has granted Me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:29-30)

Then Peter responded and said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You. What then will there be for us?” And Yeshua said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me – in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne – you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:27-28)

YHVH of armies says this: “It will yet turn out that peoples will come, that is, the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one city will go to another, saying, ‘Let’s go at once to plead for the favor of YHVH, and to seek YHVH of armies; I also will go.’ So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek YHVH of armies in Jerusalem, and to plead for the favor of YHVH.” YHVH of armies says this: “In those days ten people from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you’” (Zechariah 8:20-23)

The River Jordan we know, and the Rock of Gibraltar we know. The turning of the page and the coming in of the new Davidic age we also somewhat grasp. But who is the Groom, and why is He still waiting at the altar?

Isaiah’s double entendre

Dylan has always dappled his songwriting with biblical allusions, from the folk-anthem ‘Blowing in the Wind’ to the Grammy-winning ‘Gotta Serve Somebody.’ He is eminently comfortable guiding a biblical phrase or parable onto unexpected and surprising paths.

The Scriptures refer to the ‘groom’ in two interesting ways:

One is described by Yohanan the Immerser (known worldwide as John the Baptist) who declared: “You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ He who has the bride is the Groom. But the friend of the Groom, who stands and listens to Him, rejoices greatly because of the Groom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:28-30). John describes himself as the friend of Yeshua the Messianic Bridegroom. John rejoiced to see Yeshua’s First Coming, knowing all the while that John’s own ministry would diminish and ultimately fade away as Yeshua stepped into His prophesied calling.

The second reference is in Isaiah 62, where the Jewish people are described as the bridegroom who will marry – be re-united to – the Land of Israel in a Last Days prophetic consummation. There they will return to their own Promised Land and, in the words of the Hebrew prophets, will ‘re-marry’ that Land. This biblical passage adds another facet to the prophetic diamond: It describes YHVH the God of Jacob as Israel’s Groom who will remarry the Jewish people – whom He calls His own precious Wife:

It will no longer be said to you, ‘Forsaken,’ [Hebrew, azuva] nor to your land will it any longer be said, ‘Desolate’ [Hebrew, shmama] But you will be called, “My delight is in her” [Hebrew, heftzi va] and your land, “Married” [be’ulah]. For YHVH delights in you, and to Him your land will be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you. And as the groom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you (Isaiah 62:4-5)

The demonic matchmaking of the nations

The holiness of marriage – the exhilarating union of man and woman – reflects the craftsmanship and passion of the Original Matchmaker.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh (Genesis 2:24)

And [Yeshua] answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no person is to separate” (Matthew 19:4-6)

The wonder of marriage invites us to take a deeper look. It points us to more fully perceive God’s passion to be intimate with His Jewish people. It also applies (in another context) to the relationship between all believers and Yeshua. Let’s look at some conclusions here:

When God joins a man and woman in marriage, let no one attempt to separate husband and wife

When God joins Himself to the Jewish people, let no theologian attempt to separate God from His Jewish people through Replacement Theology

When God joins the Jewish homeland both to Himself and to the Jewish people, let no religion or superpower attempt to separate God from the Land He promised to Jacob, nor attempt to separate the Jewish people from the Land God has promised to them.

All attempts to divide the Jewish people from their Land of inheritance by ‘re-marrying the Land’ to the enemies of the Jewish people – these bring the judgment of God on these evil actors. They might be the PLO/PA, Hamas, Iran, the US State Department, the British Foreign Ministry or the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. They might even be the preachers and teachers of false teachings espoused by Replacement Theology in all of its forms – whether Catholic, Orthodox, Reformed, Evangelical or Charismatic Christianity, or even Islamist triumphalism (the most recent champion of Replacement theology). Whatever the origin and whoever the instigator, it should be remembered: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a person sows, this he will also reap (Galatians 6:7).

Let’s sum up some conclusions here:

YHVH the Groom is still waiting at the altar for His Jewish people to turn to Him in a renewal of marital vows (see Hosea 2:14-23)

The Jewish people are waiting for their sleeping soul to be wakened, filled with a love for YHVH and for their Land (see Ezekiel 37:1-13)

God is waiting on the Jewish people – for them to catalyze His Last Days world revival and international redemption, the fruit of their turning in love-filled repentance to Messiah Yeshua, entreating Him to come back to His lost sheep of Israel and to Jerusalem His city (see Romans 11:12-15; Matthew 15:24).

Men who understood the times

The rock group Chicago’s lead singer Robert Lamm once asked: “Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?” This question can certainly be posed to all who follow Messiah Yeshua today.

The Jewish tribe of Issachar was given a special gift by the God of Jacob: “The sons of Issachar [were] men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). Issachar was given unusual discernment so that they could guide the Jewish people in the military, governmental and spiritual challenges they faced. What are the challenges facing the Jewish people today, and are Christians and Jews who follow Messiah Yeshua aware of the challenges yet to be faced?

Many dear people are tone-deaf to the fast-paced changes sweeping across Planet Earth. Many are pre-occupied with the pursuit of things that will never satisfy, which will never connect us to eternal realities, as C.S. Lewis once put it:

Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek

I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin

I talk of love – a scholar’s parrot may talk Greek –

But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin (from the poem ‘As the Ruin Falls’)

All around us, events are picking up speed. Whereas in times past, earth-shaking events happened once a decade, it seems that they are now happening twice a week. The sound of rushing and roaring surrounds us, as Isaiah prophesied: “Oh, the uproar of many peoples who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rumbling of nations who rush on like the rumbling of mighty waters!” (Isaiah 17:12).

There is a temptation for some to envision Middle Eastern events concerning Israel as simply being moves on a divine chessboard, and to view the Jewish people as merely an ivory chess piece in God’s strategic gambit. Some are teaching that the horrific Hamas jihadi rapes, murders, tortures and kidnappings of October 7 should primarily be interpreted as a prophetic fulfilment of Last Days prophecies like Psalm 83 – ‘something which needed to be accomplished so that Jesus can return.’

Certainly, Psalm 83 is highly important and highly relevant in our day – though not all the protagonists in that Psalm are yet in place. But disasters befalling the Jewish people are not to be looked at through dispassionate theological spectacles. What is needed is something more human: Unless we are interceding with tears for the Jewish people, unless we understand how precious they are to God, unless we clearly grasp how YHVH will use the Jewish people to judge the nations of the world, and how the God of Jacob will restore Israel to their biblical and priority calling – there is a clear and present danger that we will dehumanize Israel’s divine calling. The result could then be that we will become callous in our own hearts and in the clarity of our perceptions as well.

Years ago I gave a teaching titled ‘The Tears of God and the Womb of the Nations.’ That message delved into the importance of grasping how God feels about His beloved Jewish people, how He weeps over them, and how the intercession of the nations for Israel’s protection, salvation, victory and restoration is an important key to the move of God on this planet.

“But where I live, the game to play is compromise solution”

Mick Jagger’s famous line from the Rolling Stones’ 1968 hit ‘Street Fighting Man’ aptly sums up current superpower politics in the Middle East. Of course, superpowers tend to disregard the word of God regarding His irrevocable gifts and calling on the Jewish people. They try to solve ‘the Middle East problem’ based on compromise solution and realpolitik. The end result of such conniving is bound to lead to no good. As Zechariah the prophet wryly noted, “It will come about on that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will injure themselves severely. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it” (Zechariah 12:3).

According to Joshua 15:1,47, Gaza is part of the Land that the God of Jacob swore by His own name to give to the sons and daughters of Israel. From YHVH’s perspective, Gaza is as much a part of the Promised Land as is Givatayim in Greater Tel Aviv. Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip is just as much a part of the Promised Land as is Kfar Saba, just north of Tel Aviv. Whether it is due to blindness, to ignorance or even to spiritual hubris, the nations of the world are currently gathering – USA, UK, Germany, France, etc. – to decide how they will divide up the Land of Israel. Current headlines trumpet the flowering of the process.

At a State Department Press Briefing on January 3, 2024. Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller stated:

We have made quite clear publicly that we support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. That has been the policy of the United States for some time. It has been the policy of this administration . . . There are any number of ways that you could go about accomplishing that. There are any number of sequencing of events that you could carry out to accomplish that objective. And we look at a wide range of options, and we discuss those with partners in the region . . . We support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, and we do a lot of work inside the government to think about how to bring that about . . . We are actively pursuing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state – with real security guarantees for Israel, because we do believe that is the best way to bring about lasting peace and security for Israel, for Palestinians, and for the region.

A January 28, 2024 report in the Times of Israel reveals that the USA has turned to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey, calling them ‘regional stakeholders’ who will enable the PLO/Palestinian Authority to transition into governing Gaza and the West Bank, thus creating a pathway to a Palestinian state. As mentioned in our previous newsletters, this international scheme empowers and establishes the Palestinian Authority (an organization neck-deep in terror and jihad) to become joint-owners of the Land of Israel.

The US is advancing a ‘contact group’ with Middle East allies aimed at coalescing around a united policy for managing the Gaza Strip after the Israel-Hamas war, a Biden administration official and a senior Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought the idea to leaders from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey when he visited the region earlier this month and got approval from each country to move forward with the initiative, the two officials said. The US is asking regional stakeholders to play a role in the reconstruction and management of Gaza after the war, and hopes that the contact group will allow for ideas to be raised and advanced in a single forum, the administration official said . . . Each country has been tasked with picking a representative on the contact group, with Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf being the US delegate, according to the administration official. The forum is expected to begin holding largely virtual working group meetings next month . . . The US has also been pushing for the establishment of a separate contact group with European partners to hold similar discussions regarding the ‘day after’ in Gaza . . . “They’ve discussed the idea of having President Biden come to the region or invite leaders to the White House to make the final sell,” the senior Arab diplomat said, speculating that Netanyahu would have a harder time saying “no” under such conditions . . . In a statement to The Times of Israel, a State Department spokesperson did not deny the existence of the contact group, saying, “We continue to engage with a range of stakeholders on many issues related to the Gaza conflict, including post-conflict issues . . . We have nothing to share regarding private diplomatic discussions,” the spokesperson added . . . Much of the success of the contact groups hinges on a major scale-back – if not a complete end – to the war, as well as cooperation from Israel, two conditions that have not yet been met.

Let’s look at this short list of six Middle Eastern nations:

Qatar and Turkey are the biggest bankrollers of the jihadi terror group Hamas.
Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have strong national Muslim Brotherhood groups (the spiritual ‘father’ of Hamas and al Qa’eda) intent on overthrowing their present ‘pro-Western’ governments.
For decades Egypt has turned a blind eye as Hamas smuggled weapons across the border into Gaza.
Five of these six countries have a hyper-active anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli media.

And these are the ‘regional stakeholders’ that the US administration has chosen to work with in order to establish a Palestinian terror state in Gaza and the West Bank?

These superpower moves are not only aiding and abetting Israel’s enemies in their move toward achieving genocidal goals. They are increasing the likelihood of empowering a repeat of the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror pogroms (which involved mass murder, mass rape, torture and kidnapping of Israeli civilians). The attempt to establish a PLO state (which would quickly be overthrown by Hamas, as happened in Gaza in 2006-2007) reveals that an inherent spiritual schizophrenia has wrapped its demonic roots around US and European policies. If left unchecked, these moves constitute a clear and present danger to Israel’s survival. In the words of Bob Dylan, “Can you imagine the darkness that will fall from on high” when the God of Israel will bring His righteous judgment on those nations who violate His clear commandments concerning these issues?

The world has been slow to learn many lessons of history: not taking Hitler’s Holocaust prophecies seriously; the danger of signing ‘peace deals’ with the perpetrators of the Munich Olympics massacres and the instigators of the First and Second Intifadas; and quite recently, standing with a stopwatch in hand, threatening Israel with a banana-republic putsch to unseat Prime Minister Netanyahu if the IDF continues to pursue its goal of totally removing the jihadi terror group Hamas from Gaza. How can Western superpowers blow the referee’s whistle and call a time-out, before these murderers, rapists, torturers and kidnappers have been eliminated and justice has been done?

Gaza – never to be part of the Promised Land but forever to be part of a Palestinian state

According to the US State Department, Israel must never be allowed to return to Gaza. The leaders of the US, the UK and the EU avow that the Jewish state should not even be considered a stakeholder in determining what happens with Gaza or the West Bank. At the same State Department briefing mentioned above, Matthew Miller declared: “We have raised with [the Israeli Government] the issue of the establishment of a buffer zone [in Gaza, to prevent jihadi terror attacks against Israeli citizens] . . . We are opposed to any reduction in the size of the territory of Gaza. And what [the Israelis] have said to us is that they do not intend to occupy Gaza; they do not intend to leave forces there. And we’re going to continue to engage with them on this question.”

The insistent focus by the US, the UK, Germany and France on what the plan will be for ‘the day after’ is actually an exercise in dissimulation. From a military perspective, the battle against Hamas must first be won before any ‘spoils of war’ can be divided. But how can that happen when the West incessantly hobbles Israel from decisively defeating their mortal enemies? The ‘Western stakeholders’ continue to stress ‘the day after,’ but what this term actually means is that these superpowers want to make sure that a Jewish community will never be resurrected in Gaza, but that only a Palestinian entity (terrorist in its essential nature) will arise to control the heartland of Israel. The inevitable result of this scheme will be more October 7 attacks – but now this time originating from the West Bank as well, easily reaching out to terrorize the core of Israel’s civilian population.

On January 29, 2024, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron unveiled strategic insight on how the US and the UK are squeezing Israel on these matters:

The UK is considering recognizing a Palestinian state as a way to apply pressure on Israel to accept a two-state solution after a ceasefire in Gaza, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said at a Westminster reception Monday. Speaking to the Conservative Middle East Council at the House of Commons, Cameron said such recognition – after Hamas releases all hostages – would represent “irreversible progress to a two-state solution and, crucially, the establishment of a Palestinian state . . . We have a responsibility there because we should be starting to set out what a Palestinian state would look like; what it would comprise; how it would work. As that happens, we, with allies, will look at the issue of recognizing a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations. This could be one of the things that helps to make this process irreversible.”

Praying for the Groom at the altar, the people and the Land

Isaiah calls us to pray fervently and continually – until the God of Jacob makes good on His prophetic promises to the Jewish people and to the Promised Land of Israel:

“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet, until her righteousness goes forth like brightness, and her salvation like a torch that is burning . . . On your walls, Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who cause YHVH to remember [His promises], take no rest for yourselves, and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem an object of praise on the earth” (Isaiah 62:1-7)

How should we then pray?

Pray for the Jewish people to reach out to the God of Israel and receive the influx of His spirit of repentance, grace and supplications – receiving Messiah Yeshua’s atonement and salvation

Pray for clear revelation and repentance for the leaders of the world’s superpowers regarding God’s heart, strategies and passions for Israel the people and their Land

Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 136 Israelis (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Hamas is also holding onto many corpses as bargaining chips

Pray for Hamas’ cruel terror dictatorship in Gaza to be decisively shattered and for all chains broken off the Palestinians living there, and for Iran’s role in jihadi deception, dissimulation and anti-Semitism to be exposed and opposed by world leaders

Pray that Israel’s leadership be granted justice, clarity, moral courage, discernment and divine strategies in utterly destroying the jihadi threat in all of its aspects, and for minimal loss of life for Israel’s defense forces and for those Gazans who are truly innocent

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to: FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212 – 1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

The Caesarea Syndrome

“My God, my God! May these things never end – the sand and the sea, the rustling of the waves, the lightning in the sky, the prayer of a man…” This poem – titled ‘A walk to Caesarea’ – was written by Hannah Szenes, a Jewish poet and partisan. Born in Budapest, she moved to Israel in 1939, joining Kibbutz Sdot Yam (next to the ancient ruins of Caesarea) in 1941. At that time she wrote this poem, which today is considered one of Israel's unofficial anthems and is the most-commonly played song on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day). In 1943 Szenes was recruited into the Special Operations Executive, and on March 14, 1944 she parachuted into Yugoslavia along with three colleagues as part of a Jewish commando unit within the British Army. Upon entering Hungary in early June 1944, she was captured, interrogated by the Hungarian security services, tortured in Budapest, tried for treason by the fascist Arrow Cross court on October 28, 1944, and then executed by firing squad on November 7, 1944. She was 23 years old at her death.

Caesarea is mentioned in Acts 10 where Peter had significant experiences with Cornelius and his household, and in Acts chapters 23-26 where Paul spoke with Felix, Festus and Herod Agrippa II. Today Caesarea is known for Israel’s wealthiest real estate holdings. It is the home of politicians, oligarchs, artists and diplomats. Prime Minister Netanyahu has a house there as well, and often travels down from Jerusalem to spend his weekend beside the rustling of the waves, the sand and the sea.

The Stockholm Syndrome revisited

In August 1973 a branch of the Swedish Kreditbanken in Norrmalmstorg, Stockholm was robbed. The robbers held the bank employees hostage for 6 days, during which time the victims became emotionally attached to their captors. After they were released, the victims continued to defend the motives and actions of the bank robbers, and at least one woman got engaged to her former captor. Swedish criminologist and psychologist Nils Bejerot coined the term ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ to describe this puzzling phenomenon, where the hostage actually buys in to the oppressor’s or captor’s perspective, and then finds her own soul overwhelmed by her captor’s lies.

Certain conditions can trigger this syndrome, including a perceived threat to one’s personal survival; the perceived inability to escape; isolation from perspectives other than that of the captor; and small acts of kindness from the captor within a context of terror. The Stockholm Syndrome should be understood first and foremost as a survival mechanism for cornered victims.

Typical behavior of those suffering from this syndrome includes:

focusing on the abuser’s positive side

denying the abuser’s violence

seeing the abuser as only a victim

believing that one deserves the abuser’s violence

hating that part of ones’ self which the abuser said caused the attack

The Stockholm Syndrome has specific significance for Israelis in the Middle East. After nearly a hundred years of Islamic Arab war against the Jews and their state, the ongoing hostilities and unremitting terrorism have triggered Stockholm Syndrome attitudes within many Israeli hearts. Some of us Israelis have begun to defend our enemies, to ignore their murderous goals and to blame ourselves for their hateful attacks. The world has encouraged this syndrome through slanted media as well as through political and economic pressure.

As a result, many in Israel have bought into an attitude of ‘accepting the necessity’ of –

retreating from portions of our ancestral homeland

shrinking Israel’s borders in order to be accepted in the Middle East

hiding behind anti-terror walls

shutting ourselves in and ‘hoping for the best’

Two of Israel’s three main political parties have platforms that mandate retreating from and surrendering our land to our mortal enemies as the best chance for peace.

Eyeless in Gaza

In August 2005 Israel’s then-PM Ariel Sharon responded to global pressure (which included veiled threats of economic and political boycott) by enacting and overseeing a unilateral retreat from Gaza (known as the ‘Disengagement’). In our day, PM Netanyahu is coming under huge international pressure to retreat from portions of the mountains of Israel in the West Bank (see Ezekiel 34:13-14; 36:1-8; 37:22; 38:8; 39:17). America’s realpolitik involves getting Israel’s government to fulfil one of global jihad’s wildest dreams – the Jewish people handing over huge swaths of our own territory to our mortal enemies on a silver platter (see Psalm 83; Ezekiel 35; Ezekiel 36).

How is that working out for us so far? After the August 2005 Gaza ‘disengagement,’ the vacuum left by the IDF was instantly filled by Islamist jihadi forces. Within a short time, advanced Iranian and Syrian weapons and millions of greenbacks flooded into the Gaza Strip. Soon after, Islamist terror groups were openly firing deadly rockets onto Jewish kibbutzim, towns and cities. Hamas gleefully declared that Israel’s retreats from Lebanon (2000) and Gaza (2005) were the result of their unceasing jihadi terror attacks. Iran’s Ahmadinejad, Hezbollah’s Nasrallah and Hamas’ Haniyeh constantly proclaim that Israel is now on the retreat, and that continued Islamist steadfastness will lead to total victory – a Palestinian Islamist state with a Muslim-dominated Jerusalem as its capital.

An excellent analysis of these Stockholm Syndrome dynamics is found in Kenneth Levin’s ‘The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People Under Siege.’

The Battered Child Syndrome

How was it possible that Israel could still support the Oslo Accords process, when PLO arch-terrorist Arafat spoke glowingly about peace before English audiences while simultaneously (when addressing Arabic-speaking audiences) called those same Oslo Accords a springboard for the destruction of Israel? After murderous terror attacks dramatically increased soon after the signing of the Oslo Accords, why is it that many Israelis continued to believe in its false vision?

Kenneth Levin compares these phenomena to victims of ‘Battered Child Syndrome,’ who blame themselves for the abuse they suffer, and are convinced that if they would only behave better, their parents would cease to beat them. The truth – that they will continue to be beaten anyway because it is their parents who have a problem and not the children – is too frightening for most to deal with.

This syndrome has afflicted the Jewish people since the early years of the Exile and continues to do so right up to the present. The Battered Child Syndrome has insinuated itself into Jewish consciousness over hundreds of years.

The Jewish people have been living under a state of siege for centuries, forced to confront unrelenting hatred directed at their people, merely because we exist. Some individuals are able to cope with this pressure, while others cannot. Those who do not find the necessary inner strength to confront and triumph over this anti-Semitism, try to solve the problem by identifying, to varying degrees, with their persecutors. Today this trend is most visible among Jews who choose the path of assimilation, who wish to find favor in the eyes of the nations whatever the cost.

A further step in this ‘Battered Child’ process involves Jews blaming each other for anti-Semitism. The step after that is for Jews to blame Israeli Jews for evils (specifically Islamist anti-Semitism) for which the Jewish people are entirely blameless.

This dynamic is prevalent and active among Israelis, and is a key to unlocking why some in the Jewish state perversely choose politically self-destructive ‘solutions’ in dealing with our enemies.

Moving the goalposts at midnight

The strategies and tactics adopted in the 1990’s by Israel’s ruling Labor Party to carry out the Oslo withdrawals merit a closer look. Israel’s intellectual elite, the architects of the Oslo process, systematically misrepresented the substance of their negotiations to the Israeli public (and even to PM Rabin) throughout the process. Then Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin sought to create ‘faits accomplis’ (secretly signed agreements) which flew in the face of public opinion and also violated established Labor Party platforms. The Israeli crafters of Oslo publicly denied any deceptive intentions, while secretly compromising and backtracking on issues which had been long-standing governmental red lines. The strategies of Beilin and of his boss Shimon Peres (later PM) were essentially non-democratic in nature. This is the way they saw it: since most Israelis could not yet understand that peace with the PLO could be attained if only antiquated concepts (like defensible borders, security issues, threats from neighboring countries, etc.) were thrown out the window (according to Beilin, Peres and Nimrod Novik), it was the obligation of Israel’s leaders to create conditions suitable to ushering in this new coming peace, and to turn Israel’s concessions into established facts on the ground – despite the public's resistance. Shimon Peres stated in November 1995: “A leader must be like a bus driver . . . He cannot turn his head all the time to see how the passengers feel.”

The now-ratified Oslo Accords have become the touchstone for ‘politically correct’ governmental leaders and world bodies like the UN in dealing with Israel. The international consensus is that Israel has no moral right to hold on to the biblical borders of the Promised Land, and thus it should be forced to withdraw from the lion’s share of those territories. A glaring example of this dangerous reality comes from just a few days ago:

On January 19, 2024 European Union Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell said that the only peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the creation of a Palestinian state. He suggested this might need to “be imposed from the outside” – without Israel’s agreement. In a speech at the University of Valladolid in Spain, Borrell said that without international intervention, the “spiral of hate will continue generation after generation . . . The actors are too opposed to be able to reach an agreement autonomously. If everyone is in favor of this solution, the international community will have to impose it [emphases mine].”

Sons of thunder, sons of lightning

A ‘clash of the titans’ power struggle has been taking place in Israel since 1977 (see my newsletter of February 22, 2023: https://davidstent.org/establish-justice-in-the-gate-amos-515/). That was the year when the Labor Party, socialist holder of the Zionist reins since before 1948, lost its traditional majority to Menahem Begin’s Likud right-wing coalition. The domination of Ashkenazi Jews (from Eastern European origins) was broken, and now Jews from Arab and Middle Eastern countries (as well as fiscal conservatives and liberals) would eat and drink at the Knesset table of honor. Diehard Laborites were not pleased, especially as their percentage of the vote dwindled nearly to the point of political extinction. The last hold-out and flag-waver of these Labor Party positions is Ehud Barak. For an in-depth background of Barak and his role as ‘éminence grise’ – the Rasputin-like power behind the throne – see the following newsletters:

March 28, 2023 https://davidstent.org/in-a-wilderness-of-mirrors/
July 4, 2023 https://davidstent.org/the-wisdom-of-ahithophel/
July 26, 2023 https://davidstent.org/following-after-the-crowd/
August 18, 2023 https://davidstent.org/mcdonalds-and-the-second-coming/

‘Barak’ in Hebrew means ‘lightning.’ The most decorated soldier in Israel’s history and one of the IDF’s top generals, once head of Israel’s Sayeret Matkal (equivalent to the US Delta Force). head of AMAN (Israel’s Military Intelligence), Chief of Staff and Minister of Defense, Prime Minister – Barak has done it all. Yet he lost the Prime-Ministership to Bibi Netanyahu (at one time a sergeant under his direct command) – something which seems to have caused a poisonous root of bitterness to spring up within Barak’s heart over time.

Over the years, Barak has spearheaded a vitriolic campaign to bring down PM Netanyahu, no matter what the cost to the nation. This has involved ‘lawfare’ (using the courts as a weapon to attack and remove Netanyahu from office); stirring up public sentiment with repeated and lurid charges of fascism, treason and incarnate evil against Bibi; spearheading civil unrest and massive quasi-violent demonstrations attempting to block Bibi’s governance and remove him from office (the ‘Kaplan riots’); calling for soldiers and pilots to go AWOL in efforts to bring down the government; and, since October 7, hijacking the cause of those Israelis kidnapped by Hamas and transforming that movement by catalyzing it into further attacks on Bibi as PM, focusing on strident calls for new elections. In pursuit of these goals, Barak has been quoted often in Israel’s media, threatening blood in the streets and civil war, as well as calling for a putsch against the PM, etc.

Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me

The world has gone through a shift in recent days. Whereas evil dictators like Hitler and Stalin hid their nefarious deeds though ‘nacht und nebel’ (‘night and fog’) or through KGB secretive arrests and murders, in our day entities like the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Yemeni Houthis, the Lebanese Hezbollah and Gaza’s Hamas make no secret of their power-hungry plans. Barak and his coterie, in a similar way, are outspoken about both their agenda and their unbridled hatred of Bibi Netanyahu and his government. Here are some selected quotes of some of Barak’s statements over the past seven years.

A Hebrew Zoom clip from July 23, 2020 (an excerpt with English sub-titles available here) is of a private meeting Barak held with retired Israel Air Force pilots and navigators (‘Forum 555’) who all supported him in his desire to remove Bibi from office. The meeting included Shikma Bressler and Moshe Redman, present leaders of the 2023 ‘Kaplan’ protest demonstrations. In that meeting Ehud Barak stated that Bibi is heading up “an attempted governmental coup.” A civil uprising is needed, he added, but it must be presented to the public as an uprising “for the sake of democracy,” rather than an attempt to unseat Netanyahu.

In the Zoom video Barak discusses strategies for a civilian revolt, including the use of slogans, civil disobedience, and both general and ultimate goals of the protest movement. He stated that he will raise the necessary funds to cover all logistics for the project, including flags, banners and PA systems. He continued, stating that the more there are streets clashes with the government, the stronger would the opposition’s resistance become. This would inevitably lead to the government needing to use force against the demonstrators, which would again bolster the protest movement. In Barak’s own words, when an army shoots into a crowd, the government is bound to fall. Barak also declared on that Zoom clip a snippet of revealing information about his own self-awareness: “Objectively speaking, I am the most suitable person in the state to take control of the steering wheel.”

In recent public statements over the past eight years, Barak has declared:

On June 16, 2016, Barak proclaimed (in Hebrew) at the Herzliya Conference: “We have been led for more than a year by a prime minister and a government that is weak, limp and all talk, even according to senior members of its coalition, deceitful and extremist, that fails repeatedly, in guaranteeing security, undermining the fabric of democracy in Israel, failing in managing diplomatic relations with the United States and in stabilizing Israel’s position in the world… Here, I call on the government to come to its senses and immediately get back on track. If you don’t do that, we will all have to get up from our comfortable and less comfortable seats – and overthrow it, through a popular protest and through the voter’s ballot – before it’s too late.”

PM Netanyahu and his government are “dark and dangerous ultra-nationalists who are undermining the foundations of Zionism and Israeli democracy”

Under Bibi, Israel is becoming a “fascist state” and an “apartheid country.” These are “the darkest days Israel has known. There is the “shattering of Israeli democracy” and “imminent dictatorship in Israel.”

PM Netanyahu is “a fascist.” Justice Minister Yariv Levin is “a dictator.” Bibi’s cabinet are a “joke,” “jackasses,” “drivellers,” “simpletons,” and “people sick with autoimmune diseases.”

The policies of his political nemesis on the Israel Right are to be described by the negative epithet “messianic.”

Israeli citizens should refuse to serve in the IDF (at a February 2023 Ha’aretz conference: “When a black flag of extreme illegality flies over an army order, it is not just the right of a soldier to disobey that order; it is his obligation. We are now facing the civilian equivalent of black-flag illegality . . . Our only obligation is to liberal democracy as expressed in the Declaration of Independence. We have no obligatory contract with dictators, and history will judge to purgatory all those who submit to the dictates of dictators . . . We are the right side of history and we are not afraid of anybody or anything.”

On Saturday June 10, 2023, Barak toldhis Haifa audience: “To this end, the protest must increase and move to civil rebellion, or in more precise language, nonviolent civil disobedience . . . The script for civil disobedience was written by Mahatma Gandhi, who drove the British Empire from India, by Martin Luther King, who led the struggle for civil rights for blacks, by the young people of the United States, who pulled it out of Vietnam, and by those who removed [Slobodan] Milošević from his dictator’s chair in Serbia. I am calling upon all the citizens of Israel to prepare for the call to act, and when the call comes, to answer it. We will fight, and we will not fear anyone or anything. The purpose of the protest must be clear. There are no compromises with someone who tried to destroy democracy.”

On July 6, 2023 on Channel 12 TV, Barak called on “air force pilots and front-line commandos” to warn Bibi that if he succeeded in passing his legal reforms, these elite soldiers “would refuse to serve a dictatorship, period.”

On July 20, 2023, Yossi Melman one of Israel’s top intelligence journalists wrote an analysis in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, reflecting Barak’s perspective: “A Military Coup Is Underway in Israel – and It’s Completely Justified”: “A military coup is underway in Israel. This is the unvarnished truth. At the same time, there is an attempt to play with words in order to avoid looking the reality in the eye. The rebels and their supporters are employing euphemisms and resorting to linguistic acrobatics rather than stating unequivocally that there is insubordination among many Israel Defense Forces reservists. They refer to it instead as ‘ceasing to volunteer’ . . . It’s more comfortable for all involved not to explicitly use the phrase ‘military coup,’ but if the issue is to be effectively addressed, the reality must be faced head-on and called by its rightful name . . . [This] is a military coup for the sake of democracy.”

On July 24, 2023 the leadership of the Kaplan demonstrators proclaimed: “We will fight the government of destruction to the bitter end!”

Barak’s attempt to adulterate the hostage-release movement

Here are three short quotes from a longer recording on December 3, 2023 between former Prime Minister/Chief of Staff Ehud Barak and retired helicopter pilot Guy Poran, founder of Forum 555 and the ‘pilots’ protest’ inciter/organizer [well-publicized calls for IAF pilots to go AWOL in order to bring down the government]. In that recording Barak lays out his plan to depose Netanyahu using the two Trojan horses, ex-Generals Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, and to expel Members of Knesset Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich from the government – in order to facilitate the IDF’s withdrawal from Gaza which would be turned over to a “responsible entity,” namely the Palestinian Authority.

It is sobering but nonetheless true, that Barak’s end game involves a putsch against Bibi and the establishment of a PLO/PA/Hamas terror state in the Jewish heartland.

Barak – “The initial nucleus . . . and true nucleus of the [protest to bring down PM Netanyahu is] the irresistible anger and demand . . . from the families of the murdered [by Hamas on October 7, 2023] and of the uprooted communities “

Poran – “I agree with you and we, the [Kaplan] protest movement [against PM Netanyahu]and Forum 555 [the pilots who threatened to go AWOL in order to bring down the government] are telling the people . . . Do these movements need to, today, go out to the streets as rank-and-file citizens, or brand themselves as protest movements?”

Barak – “Only as citizens. It’s important to separate [our involvement and steering of the hostage release movement] from the protest movement. The protest movement is being perceived by the public as something associated with the judicial coup [i.e., judicial reform] . . . We must not come with the insignia of the protest movement. Not the black flags and not the . . . ‘Brothers in Arms’ T-shirts, none of the markings of the protest, not the stage on Kaplan Street, and not even the leaders. Not I, and not [former Chief of Staff and Defense Minister] Bogie [Ya’alon] and not [former Chief of Staff Dan] Halutz, and also not [Moshe] Redman and Shikma Bressler and any of the other leaders. It must not be connected to the protest. It’s the same people, but these are people who come this time for an entirely different reason.”

The hostage-release movement is a genuine Israeli grass-roots movement. Its goal is to raise awareness about the condition of the up-to-136 Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas and held in terrible conditions, daily subjected to torture, rape, starvation, etc. This is a bona fide national outpouring of prayer and agony for the release of these Jewish and Israeli victims. It is worthy of support and prayer.

Yet at the same time, Barak and his back-door cronies are, like vampires, cynically manipulating this movement of grieving families in an attempt to stir up anger and hatred against the legal government of Israel. These shadowy puppet masters are paying for posters, billboards, T-shirts, buses for demonstrators, etc. – just as they did for the ‘spontaneous’ Kaplan demonstrators of 2023. They are even using the same PR firms and graphics. Most Israelis are not aware of the fact that this exceedingly popular movement has been somewhat tainted and is being manipulated behind the scenes.

There is a strong need for prayer here – that God would ‘purify the sons of Levi’ (see Malachi 3:3) – and all the tribes of Israel, for that matter.

Scholars, politicians and political analysts have noted that the leaders of Hamas have been carefully studying Israeli politics and politicians, and had come to the conclusion that the civil unrest, quasi-violent demonstrations and calls for AWOL behavior throughout 2023 – all had served to weaken the IDF’s and the nation’s combat readiness. They also concluded that these events had downgraded Israel’s fighting spirit. These were some of the factors that influenced Hamas in choosing the date of October 7, 2023 as the time of their jihadi terror attack.

The Stockholm Syndrome – Hamas version

As Barak and his fellow-travelers have set their hand to massaging the public persona and message of the hostage-release movement, a new narrative is now being distributed to the Israeli and world media. It is classic Stockholm Syndrome. According to this narrative, Bibi Netanyahu must be publicly attacked, vilified, held guilty and removed from office because Hamas is still holding Israeli hostages in cruel captivity. “Bring them home NOW!” is one of the buzzwords associated with this spin, and its posters use the same graphics as did both the Kaplan demonstrators and fascist Germany of the 1930’s: stark black background, bold red text and white trim. Mass demonstrations are now held at Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Interchange but, as Barak commanded, the faces of the leadership have been ‘changed’; nevertheless, the song remains the same: “Throw out Bibi! New elections now! The Right wing is evil!”

But Hamas does not take orders from Barak or Kaplan or Israel’s Left wing. When Israeli citizens are stampeded into screaming at Israel’s democratically elected leadership, stamping their foot on the ground in anger, calling for a 24-hour strike of all Israeli businesses – none of that has the slightest effect on Hamas, and none of it releases the Israelis held hostage in cruel Hamas cages. It only drives up the price for those hostages’ release in any hostage negotiations. The strident ‘orders’ being given to Israel’s government by Barak and his followers (backed up by threats of an electoral putsch) are a purely political ploy to unseat the government and bring the politics of appeasement to the fore. Those who manipulate the narrative in this fashion have no understanding of how Middle Eastern negotiations actually operate.

On the road to Caesarea

On Friday, January 19, 2024, the ‘Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum’ held a demonstration outside of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea, shouting slogans like “For 105 days we begged you and now we demand: stop the executions of the hostages!” and “Their time has passed - we must make a deal now!” The Families Forum is demanding an immediate convening of an international conference composed of Qatar (Hamas’ main bankroller and asylum-granter), Egypt (which permits Hamas to re-arm through its Rafah border tunnels), the US (which has its main Middle East air base in Qatar) and Israel. Of course, neither Iran nor Hamas would attend such a conference; these two entities don’t care in the slightest about such gatherings.

In 1988, a Gazan terrorist associated with Hamas named Yahya Sinwar (Yaḥyá al-Sanwār) orchestrated the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians considered to be collaborators. Two of these Palestinians he strangled, one he killed during a violent interrogation, and the fourth he accidentally shot during an attempted abduction. Sinwar was captured by Israel and sentenced to four life sentences in 1989. In 2008 while in prison, he was operated on by Israeli doctors who removed a brain tumor and saved his life. Sinwar served 22 years of his sentence, and in 2011 he was one of 1,027 Palestinian terrorists freed in a prisoner exchange for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held hostage by Hamas for five years.

In February 2017 internal elections, Hamas elected Sinwar as its political chief in the Gaza Strip, replacing deputy Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Sinwar is a founding member of the forerunner of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. He also founded Hamas’ al-Majd internal security service (targeting alleged collaborators with Israel), which operates under the oversight of Mohammed Deif’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades terror group. Sinwar was re-elected Hamas’ Gazan political leader on March 10, 2021. Sinwar opposes any power sharing with the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, and rejects any reconciliation with Israel. He has called on Hamas operatives to capture Israeli soldiers as bargaining chips for prisoner exchanges. He is the highest-ranking Hamas official in Gaza and Gaza's de facto ruler, as well as the second most powerful member of Hamas after Haniyeh.

When Sinwar was imprisoned in Israel more than a decade ago, he explained to Yuval Bitton (then head of the Israel Prison’s Intelligence Division) his analysis of one of Israel’s major strengths – which is also one its major weaknesses. Sinwar said that what Israel considers its strength – that most Israelis serve in the army, and that soldiers hold a special status in society – is at the same time a weakness that can be exploited by Hamas, said Yuval Bitton. His observation proved prescient in 2011, when Sinwar was one of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners freed for a single Israeli soldier. Now, Sinwar is holding hostage 136 Israelis, including soldiers. The Hamas leader is betting he can force the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners and also maintain Hamas’ iron grip on Gaza. He’s relying on his judgment of Israeli society after two decades of Israeli jail time – where he learned Hebrew, watched local news and deciphered the Israeli psyche. Bitton concludes that Sinwar “understands that Israel will pay a heavy price. He understands this is our weak spot.”

Sinwar and 1,026 Palestinian terrorists were released in 2011 for one IDF soldier (Gilad Shalit) who had been captured by Hamas on June 25, 2006. On May 7, 2014 SHABAK (Israel’s FBI) detained Hamas terrorist Ziad Awad from the town of Idna near Hebron, who had also been released as part of the Shalit prisoner exchange. Awad had just murdered Israeli police intelligence agent Baruch Mizrahi (also a lieutenant colonel in the IDF reserves, who served in the ‘8200’ SIGINT of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate AMAN) on April 14, 2014 (the Eve of Passover) on Route 35 near the Tarkumiya checkpoint. Awad was aided in these preparations by his son Izz ad-Din Awad, age 18. These preparations included the purchase of a motorcycle and an AK-47 assault rifle for his father. Izz ad-Din also scouted out the best area for the ambush-attack.

In 2013 , two years after the 2011 prisoner exchange, Israeli security forces thwarted more than 40 terror attacks planned by Hamas operatives released in the Shalit deal. As of July 2015, six Israelis had been killed by Hamas terrorists released in the Shalit deal (see Shelly Aviv Yeini’s penetrating article in the Minnesota Journal of International Law, titled “Weighing Lives: Israel’s Prisoner-Exchange Policy and the Right to Life”; 2018). Certainly, Yahya Sinwar’s release has led to the murder of over 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023, as well as to the rape, torture and kidnapping of hundreds more.

Whose blood is redder?

The weighing of a decision to release terrorist murderers with blood on their hands, in exchange for innocent civilians – babies, children, teenagers, parents, pensioners – presents a terrible ethical quandary, and it leads to appalling moral choices.

In Tractate Sanhedrin 74a, an illustrative story is told about “a certain person who approached Rabba with the following question: ‘The ruler of my village came to me and said “Go kill such-and-such a person, and if you do not, then I will kill you.” Can I follow his order so that I will be able to save myself?’ Rabba responded: ‘Allow yourself to be killed, but you may not kill another. Who says that your blood is redder than his? Perhaps his blood is redder than yours?’ Who is sufficient to be able to weigh the lives of these hostages against the possibility of future Israeli lives snuffed out by possible future jihadi atrocities?

Here is a quote from Chen Shalita, whose article of October 10, 2023 bears reading: “The Dilemma around the Israeli Hostages Casts Doubts About National Priorities and Solidarity from Decision-Makers:”

Someone else, who was also involved in the Shalit campaign, and wishes to stay anonymous, is rather more skeptical. “We are experiencing the flip side of the Shalit case. Hamas expected this to be a repeat of the Shalit case. They thought that they would kidnap Israelis and that we would cave in. I believe that it will not happen quickly - if at all. The State of Israel has implemented the Hannibal Directive on the whole of the Gaza Strip (since the current conflict erupted, based on the understanding that the moment we release prisoners, we are opening the door for countless more abductions.” The Hannibal Directive is a classified IDF order, the full meaning of which is not known, which states that the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers must be avoided at all costs, even if it means harming IDF’s own forces. It is worth noting that the directive deals with the case of the kidnapping of soldiers, not civilians as is the current situation. “So do we just give up on the Israeli hostages?” Shalita asks. The anonymous security individual responds: “You see it as abandoning the children, but if we pay the price, more children will find themselves in the same situation in the future. If photos of children ‘sell,’ after all they are published for a reason, because when they [Hamas] wanted to keep things quiet, they were able to do so, then the next time they’ll kidnap children again. That is always the dilemma when it comes to hostage negotiations.”

How should we then pray?

Ask the God of Israel to grant increased understanding and revelation to Israel’s leaders about how to proactively deal with political witchcraft from within Israel and Hamas witchcraft from without

Pray for a biblically sound prophetic ministry to be restored to the leaders of Israel, and that the world-wide body of Messiah would be moved by the Holy Spirit to focus with intercessory intensity as we progress deeper into World War III

Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 136 Israelis (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Hamas is also holding onto many corpses as bargaining chips

Pray for Hamas’ cruel terror dictatorship in Gaza to be decisively shattered and for all chains broken off the Palestinians living there – that there might be a ‘Free Palestine’ indeed, not under jihadi control – and for Iran’s role in jihadi deception, dissimulation and anti-Semitism to be exposed and rejected by world leaders

Pray that Israel’s leadership be granted justice, clarity, moral courage, discernment and divine strategies in utterly destroying the jihadi threat in all of its aspects, and for minimal loss of life for Israel’s defense forces and for those Gazans who are truly innocent

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to: FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212 – 1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

The Princess Bride – a study in diplomacy

One striking scene in the 1987 movie ‘The Princess Bride,’ Count Rugen is about to haul Westley off to be tortured to death. But first Rugen must deceive the heroine Buttercup by pretending to help Westley on his way to a ship leaving the realm. Rugen declares: “Come, Sir, we must get you to your ship!” But Westley smiles wryly and says: “We are men of Action. Lies do not become us.” The Count gives a tiny smile and responds: “Well spoken, Sir.” Rugen’s smooth diplomatic speech concealed wicked intent.

The American writer Isaac Goldberg once said, “Diplomacy is to do and say the nastiest things in the nicest way” (in ‘The Reflex,’ October 1927).

Before becoming one of the greatest mass-murderers the world has ever seen, Joseph Stalin once wrote: “A diplomat’s words must contradict his deeds – otherwise what sort of a diplomat is he? Words are one thing – deeds something entirely different. Fine words are a mask to cover shady deeds. A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron” (Joseph Stalin, ‘Elections in Petersburg,’ 1913).

Someone has recently said that diplomacy is the art of selling a deal you don’t want, to people you don’t trust, for reasons you won’t admit to.

These sobering words help in anchoring a balanced consideration of recent Middle East events.

“Unnamed diplomatic sources say …”

Diplomacy today often leaks quotes from ‘unattributed sources’ to world media. These anonymous quotes, though depersonalized in nature, truly represent government policy and soon-coming actions. Yet they are floated as if they are only ‘hints about future possibilities.’ After all, these policies might need to be withdrawn if there is too much public outcry. Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Russia Thomas Pickering stated it this way: “In archeology you uncover the unknown. In diplomacy you cover the known.”

Over the past three months of war – triggered by the October 7, 2023 jihadi terrorist group Hamas’ demonic attacks and atrocities on Israeli citizens living next to the Gaza Strip – Western governments were at first sympathetic and supportive regarding Israel’s suffering. They even showed a measure of understanding for the Jewish state’s determination to seek and destroy those jihadi forces responsible.

But very quickly, hobbling conditions and limitations were first ‘floated’ by the West – first as ‘concerns’ but within a month or two they were then declared as state policy:

Israel was initially permitted by the West to eliminate Hamas terrorists hiding among the pro-Hamas supportive Gazan population. Yet Hamas’s war strategy is based on using the Gazan population as human shields, and then capitalizing on the resultant suffering to turn world sympathy against Israel. And indeed, just in the past week Israel has been brought before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accused of genocide by many countries – even though it was simply defending itself against genocidal attacks from jihadi forces

Israel was lectured by the US, the UK, France and Germany about the need to permit and increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Gazans – food, water, electricity, medicine – but this aid went straight into the hands of Hamas. This served to strengthen their jihadi war machine as it continued to fire rockets at Israel’s civilian population and hold on to Israeli hostages. POTUS Biden promised that such aid would never reach Hamas, but it did – immediately – and still does on a daily basis – without the West interdicting Hamas as it harms Israel. This ‘aid request’ from the West soon became an ‘aid requirement’ – robbing Israel of the ability to pressure Hamas into releasing Israeli hostages suffering cruelly under jihadi captivity, torture and rape. Israel is being forced by the West to aid its enemies as they torture Israelis in the jihadi tunnels of Gaza.

Immediately after the pogroms of October 7, the US State Department expressed clear awareness that Hamas needed to be removed from control in Gaza, and that the time was certainly not right for pushing for a Palestinian terrorist state to be set up either in Gaza or the West Bank. But within two months, first ‘unnamed sources’ in the US administration and then the POTUS, Secretary of State and other US official spokesmen began to declare that the PLO/Palestinian Authority (itself a terrorist organizations – see https://davidstent.org/caiaphas-kissinger-and-the-cia/ and https://davidstent.org/understanding-the-times/) needed to take over from Hamas and establish a Palestinian state in both the West Bank and Gaza. At this point, only 7% of all Israelis believe that such a state would be a good thing. The vast majority believe that the PLO state would be overthrown in short order by a Palestinian population which is openly overwhelming supportive of Hamas and its October 7 atrocities. Israelis discern that all Palestinian leaders are terrorists and that any international push to establish a Palestinian state would be a continuation of Hamas-like terror. Any nation which pushes for that is coming up against a united Jewish nation opposed vehemently to such an outcome.

In the same way as former POTUS Barak Obama did not realistically discern the Iranian threat (to the Middle East, to Israel and to the world) but instead opened up the financial sluice gates and allowed for a slippery path to nuclear weaponization, today other hands and leaders are repeating existential errors in breathing power and political energy into jihadi monsters.

Israel – the new banana republic

In a recent newsletter (https://davidstent.org/you-dont-have-too-many-friends-here-buddy/ ; November 2, 2023) I pointed out how ‘unnamed U.S. sources’ were raising hints that ‘it would be a shame if something happened to Israel’s wonderful democratically elected government’ and that, just in case something might happen to the Netanyahu government, “Biden aides already are engaging an array of other Israeli politicians – some in power, some not – on the war effort. According to the two [unnamed] senior administration officials as well as the current and former [unnamed] U.S. official, those talks have also provided a way to gauge the thinking of various Israelis who might take the helm of the country. While Biden administration officials have offered public declarations of solidarity with the Israeli government during the current crisis, aides are also trying to get ahead of what Netanyahu’s downfall could mean for the future Israeli-U.S. relationship . . . Netanyahu hasn’t been a favorite of the Biden team. His increasingly hardline positions over the years have upset Biden aides who still support creating a Palestinian state. With an eye toward the future, [unnamed] U.S. officials are talking to Benny Gantz, a member of the current unity government; Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister; and Yair Lapid, an opposition leader and former prime minister, among other Israeli figures, the former [unnamed] official said.”

“Even the best-case scenario for Israel in this war would not likely keep Netanyahu in power,” said Hagar Chemali, a former National Security Council and Treasury Department official in the Obama administration. “I still believe Netanyahu is on his way out because Israelis are already publicly questioning whether he is really the right person, not just to win this specific battle against Hamas, but the broader war for a peaceful and secure Israel.” Bibi has been elected and re-elected as PM in Israeli elections; he has served longer than any other Prime Minister, even longer than Ben-Gurion. Yet U.S. State Department officials, speaking anonymously, seem to have greater insight and discernment about what Israelis think, than do Israelis themselves.

Treating the Jewish state in such a manner is often described as treating it like a banana republic. The term ‘banana republic’ was first found in print in 1904, describing Central America social and political realities. This term can be a pejorative word used to describe a weak country that aids and supports a stronger power (or superpower) in exchange for certain kickbacks or perks. America’s realpolitik toward Central American banana-producing countries has often been characterized by this term.

History shows us that, when Israel attempts to reclaim its God-promised land and its biblical borders, or when the Jewish state’s IDF attempts to decisively crush its enemies, it is then that various superpowers step in to reign in Israel from achieving those goals. It may have been Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons in 1956 and 1973, or American orders to Israel to stand down or retreat in 1991, 2006 and 2021.

In 2021 POTUS Biden made many calls to PM Netanyahu during May’s Operation Guardian of the Walls. During their fourth phone call, on May 19, 2021, Biden was unhappy that Israel was insisting on completing the administering of a death-blow to Hamas. “Hey, man, we are out of runway here. It’s over!” said Biden. The ‘Times of Israel’ reports: “Netanyahu agreed to a ceasefire two days later. The longtime Likud leader was replaced one month later by a short-lived unity government headed by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid.”

The game of thrones

A January 18, 2024 article in ynetnews.com draws back the current veil somewhat, showing that there is now some baring of teeth in the pressure being applied to Israel. The US administration is threatening to do what it did before in 2021 – to work behind the scenes against Israel’s democratically elected government in order to set up a new government, one more quick to bow to American directives vis-à-vis establishing a Palestinian state. This state (falsely called ‘the two-state solution’) would be run by terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank. Here is clear evidence of these Machiavellian machinations:’

“The Biden administration is bypassing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in plans for post-war Gaza, discussing the future of the Strip and the region with Saudi Arabia and other moderate Arab nations . . . Quoting [unnamed] officials, [a report] said the U.S. president had grown frustrated with Netanyahu as evidenced by the lack of communications between the two leaders in recent weeks after they had spoken regularly in the wake of the Hamas attack on October 7 . . . The officials said the Biden administration is trying to lay the groundwork with other Israeli and civil society leaders in anticipation of an eventual post-Netanyahu government. In an attempt to work around Netanyahu . . . Two [unnamed] senior administration officials told the network that Biden’s hopes for a regional shift that would reshape the Middle East was linked the to the establishment of a Palestinian state, as a result, one official said, the president’s aspirations may have to wait until a different government comes into power in Israel.”

US State Department Matthew Miller indicated that the Israeli Prime Minister had rebuffed a US push for a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank. Miller stated that Israel “faces some very difficult choices in the months ahead . . . The conflict in Gaza is going to end. It will end, and at the end of that conflict, someone is going to have to rebuild Gaza, someone is going to have to govern Gaza, someone is going to have to provide security in Gaza . . . For the first time in its history, you see the countries in the region who are ready to step up and further integrate with Israel, and provide real security assurance to Israel, and the US is ready to play its part, but they all have to have a willing partner on the other side . . . There is no way to solve their long-term challenges, and there is no way to solve the short-term challenges [facing Palestinians and Israelis] without the establishment of a Palestinian state. We had direct conversations with [Netanyahu], and now we are having a public conversation with him as well, but it’s going to be a process,”

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke this week at the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, stressing the same point as a strong U.S. pressure point:

“A central diplomatic initiative of the Biden administration was to try to . . . generate both tangible benefits for the Palestinian people and a political horizon towards two states . . . Now, the strategy post-October 7th does not deviate very much from that. We still want to see normalization tied to a political horizon for the Palestinian people. The current Israeli government has expressed quite strong views publicly about the Palestinian question. But ultimately, you know, the Israeli government will have to make its choice about how best to guarantee and ensure the security of the State of Israel, and it is President Biden’s firm conviction that the best way to do that is two states.”

Part of this concerted pressure can be seen in Israeli media obediently towing the US administration’s line and political talking points. Today’s January 19, 2024 Jerusalem Post on-line highlights three articles all of which sound like they have been authored beside the Potomac. Here are the titles: “Netanyahu, Israel's war cabinet cannot delay calls on Gaza any longer;” “Israel's emergency government close to collapse as Gaza war continues;” “The Benjamin Netanyahu era is over, sources in Likud say.”

The day after the day after

One of the main talking points of the US administration revolves around the term ‘the day after;’ what are Israel’s plans (hint, hint – a Palestinian state) after the IDF defeats Hamas. Of course, as the US and the West attempt to hobble Israel from decisively defeating Hamas (just as has happened 15 times over the past two decades), it is not a foregone conclusion that there will be a ‘day after Hamas.’ So over the past few days, ‘unnamed U.S. sources’ have switched terms and are now stressing a new concept – ‘the day after Bibi Netanyahu.’ In other words, since Netanyahu will not bow to our directives to establish a Palestinian state, we will establish a different Israeli government to replace Bibi, and then we will establish a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu’s immediate response to these leaks was direct: “Those who speak of the day after Netanyahu are talking about the creation of a Palestinian state led by the Palestinian Authority.” He added:

“Every territory that we withdraw from – terror is leveled against us,” Netanyahu said, explaining that this included southern Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank, which he referred to as Judea and Samaria. This is why, in any future arrangement (or even if there is not a future arrangement) “Israel must maintain security control over all the territory west of the Jordan River.” This conflicts with the idea of Palestinian sovereignty, but “there is nothing that can be done about that. I have explained this truth to the Americans,” he said, adding that he also prevented an attempt to impose on Israel a harmful reality. “An Israeli Prime Minister has to be able to say ‘no’ even to our best friends. To say ‘no’ when it’s necessary and to say ‘yes’ when it’s possible,” Netanyahu said.

There is wisdom in the sharp retort that Ahab King of Israel made to Ben Hadad, the king of Aram/Syria regarding assuming victory in battle without YHVH’s counsel: “Then the king of Israel replied, ‘Tell [Ben Hadad], “He who straps on his weapons had better not boast like one who takes them off.”’”

What will ‘the day after’ be for all these nations who are pushing Israel to submit to a drawing and quartering of the Promised Land, surrendering its heartland to jihadi murderers (many who are descendants of Edom; see Ezekiel 25:12-14; Ezekiel 36:1-15)? This is what ‘the day after’ is all about. This concerted push is bringing the judgment of the God of Jacob down upon the nations who set their hand to such a cursed endeavor (Joel 3:1-2; Genesis 12:3).

Solving the conflict without a peace process

Here are four quotes to round off this newsletter. Each one is worth chewing on:

“We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow”; Henry John Temple, 3d Viscount Palmerston; remarks in the House of Commons defending his foreign policy, March 1, 1848.—Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, 3d series, vol. 97, col. 122

“A real diplomat is one who can cut his neighbor's throat without having his neighbor notice it” (Trygve Lie, first Secretary-General of the United Nations)

“A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a tactful way that you’ll look forward with pleasure to making the trip” St. Louis Star-Times; Missouri, November 1937)

“Resolution occurs when one party realizes it can no longer pursue its aims and gives them up. This usually follows its unambiguous vanquishment, either a military collapse (as in World War II) or internal rot (as in the Cold War). ‘In every case I can think of,’ writes strategist Michael Ledeen, ‘peace has come about at the end of a war in which there was a winner and a loser. The winner imposed [his] terms on the loser, and those terms were called “peace”’ . . . Hardly a single major interstate conflict has concluded due to someone’s clever schema. The idea that a ‘peace process’ can take the place of the dirty work of war is a conceit. Again, to quote Ledeen, ‘Peace cannot be accomplished simply because some visiting envoy, with or without an advanced degree in negotiating from the Harvard Business School, sits everyone down around a table so they can all reason together.’ The oft-heard mantra that ‘there is no military solution’ . . . in short, has things exactly wrong” (Daniel Pipes; ‘The Only “Solution” [for Israel] is Military’ New York Post, 25 February 2002)

How should we then pray?

Ask the God of Israel to grant increased understanding and revelation to Israel’s leaders about how to proactively deal with superpower pressures and witchcraft

Pray for a biblically sound prophetic ministry to be restored to the leaders of Israel, and that the world-wide body of Messiah would be moved by the Holy Spirit to focus with intercessory intensity as we progress deeper into World War III

Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 136 Israelis (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Hamas is also holding onto many corpses as bargaining chips

Pray for Hamas’ cruel terror dictatorship in Gaza to be decisively shattered and for all chains broken off the Palestinians living there – that there might be a ‘Free Palestine’ indeed, not under jihadi control – and for Iran’s role in jihadi deception, dissimulation and anti-Semitism to be exposed and rejected by world leaders

Pray that Israel’s leadership be granted justice, clarity, moral courage, discernment and divine strategies in utterly destroying the jihadi threat in all of its aspects, and for minimal loss of life for Israel’s defense forces and for those Gazans who are truly innocent

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to: FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212 – 1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org